The Voluntary Education Program at San Quentin received an $80,000 grant for college textbooks from the California State Library. Tom Bolema, literacy coordinator of college programs at San Quentin, said, “This is the greatest thing that ever happened!”
Typically a textbook costs from $40 to $200, which many inmate students can’t afford. Principal Tony Beebe of the Burton Adult School at San Quentin said the cost of textbooks is the “single largest barrier to inmate college participation.”
The grant was provided specifically for college course textbooks. Bolema said the books “will help give inmates the tools necessary for success in mainstream society.” He said that education and literacy are keys to lowering the recidivism rate.
Currently, about two out of every three inmates who are released return to prison. Studies indicate that inmates who participate in prison education programs have a lower chance of doing so, according to Debora Lynch of the California State Library.
Bolema chose which books to buy for the San Quentin classes. He ordered 10 books for each of the Coastline College and Lassen College classes he facilitates. The Voluntary Education Program coordinators at San Quentin act as conduits to a dozen or so colleges.
Beebe said San Quentin and Ironwood prisons received money through the grant. He noted the state has budgeted funds this year for the purchase of books for students at other prisons as well.
“It’s a no-brainer,” said San Quentin inmate Barry Jameson. “Buying books instead of more cells only makes sense,” he added.
Society can generate investment returns on the money because rather than returning to prison, the students can now become tax-paying citizens, Jameson commented. “Do you want a person with a college degree getting out of prison, or a person who has spent the past 15 years working out and learning more criminal stuff?” he added.
Now “hundreds of inmates will be able to complete college classes they might not otherwise have been able to complete,” Bolema said. Thanks to the funding, San Quentin inmates are now on a broader path to literacy, and have more resources to complete an associate’s degree.
In addition to the college textbooks, the Voluntary Education Program received a large number of recreational reading books.
