College Essay # 181

181. Should prison inmates be allowed to take college courses? Explain why or why not.

Education and knowledge is something that everyone has the right to. There is no one in the world that can own the whole idea of education and knowledge. Many people have contributed to the vastness of the things known in the world today and they can claim what they have contributed. They cannot claim the idea as a whole. Nowhere in black and white is there written that a someone has created knowledge. So to answer this question, I would say that prison inmates should be allowed to take college courses.

Everyone has the right to learn and broaden his or her knowledge. Everyone has the right to ask for an education. But I think prison inmates, especially, should be allowed to take college courses. For one, many could have committed a crime to earn money because there is no other way they can do it. I’m not saying that the it’s the right thing to do, I’m just saying that it could be the only option they had. For this reason, they should be allowed to take classes, so that they learn, and earn a degree and try to earn money in other ways besides crime. Secondly, they should be allowed to take college courses so they can start a new life over. The one a prison inmate is in now is not something they want to be in for a period of time or for the remainder of their lives. If an education is given to these people, a sense of hope is given as well. They can feel like there is something they can do to get out of the phase they are presently in. Giving them an education allows them to believe in themselves, and allows them to feel like they’re doing something right. Their lives could change forever. And thirdly, prison inmates should be allowed to take college courses so that they, themselves, can determine what is right and what is wrong. A lot of prison inmates have been abused as children and have suffered great amounts of trauma. They don’t know what right and wrong is. They learn from what they have witnessed. If we allow them to get an education, then we allow them to think for themselves. Educators don’t have to spoon feed them and tell them what is right and what is wrong the way we teach little kids. However, if we do give them a chance to a education, they will soon be able to distinguish that learning and doing productive things are the right things to do in life and helps me move forward while being in prison is not the right thing for me and will not help me move forward.