***1AC***

CONTENTION 1: INHERENCY and SIGNIFICANCE

The Trump administration covertly cut a Bureau of Prisons’ project to create a
school district in federal prisons. This recidivism reducing program is key to
offering prisoners access to high school diploma programs and special education.
Reilly & Craven 2017 Ryan & Julia Senior Justice Reporter & Civil Rights Reporter “Federal
Bureau Of Prisons Fires Head Of An Obama-Era Education Effort, Putting Reform Under Trump In
Doubt” Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bureau-of-prisons-education-
reform_us_591f2289e4b094cdba53c398

WASHINGTON ― The Federal Bureau of Prisons has quietly fired an education specialist the Justice
Department hired to serve as the first “superintendent” of the educational system within
federal prisons, HuffPost has learned.
The Obama administration brought on Amy Lopez last year to overhaul educational programs for federal prisoners, with the hope of
easing their re-entry into society and reducing recidivism. Lopez was fired last week ― leaving the future of the reform
efforts under President Donald Trump in doubt.

“They’re shitcanning it,” a person who worked on the prison reform efforts disclosed to HuffPost this
week. “It’s tragic. This is really tragic.” Another person familiar with the status of the program said the
initiatives had been “canned or placed on hold” covertly.
Lopez declined to comment on Thursday, saying she needed to speak with a lawyer before she could talk to a reporter. A Justice
Department spokeswoman said Thursday she was not aware of Lopez’s firing or broader changes to the prison reform plans the
Obama administration put in place, and referred questions to the Bureau of Prisons. A BOP spokeswoman said Friday morning that
the agency had “no announcements or updates regarding our programs at this time.” The BOP spokeswoman did not respond to
questions about Lopez’s firing or the status of some prison reform initiatives.

Lopez “uprooted her whole life” to take the job as superintendent of the BOP’s education, according to a person who worked on the
efforts. In November, Lopez left a job in Texas, where she had worked as an educator in the prison system. The job she accepted
under former President Barack Obama would have put her in charge of what DOJ called a “semi-autonomous school district within
the federal prison system,” with the goal of giving prisoners the opportunity to earn their high school diploma and pursue post-
secondary studies.

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who was largely driving the prison reform initiative, said in a press release in November
that the
changes would “make our prisons more effective” and reduce recidivism ― and therefore prevent crime ―
by “equipping inmates with the tools they need to successfully reenter society.” The plan also
included more opportunities for inmates with learning disabilities and a pilot program in which
inmates would be given customized tablets for online education.
On prison and criminal justice issues more broadly, he’s broken with the Obama administration. Shortly after taking over the DOJ, he
reversed a policy Yates had put in place that would have curtailed BOP’s use of private prisons. And Lopez
was fired the
same week that Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to take an aggressive approach to federal
crimes in all instances, including drug offenses, which will almost certainly lead to an expansion of the
federal prison population.
There’s no clear indication at this point that either Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ordered Lopez’s firing or a
suspension of the reform initiatives more broadly. A Justice Department spokeswoman said it “was a purely BOP thing,” and a
former senior DOJ official familiar with the status of the BOP initiatives said they were told there had not been any formal directive
from current DOJ leadership. The former official said the reform plan hadn’t been a major topic during transition meetings between
Obama and Trump administration officials, and they had hoped the new DOJ leadership would recognize the programs contributed
to public safety.
“The thing that really drove all of these education reforms was not ‘Let’s all provide warm and
fuzzy services to prisoners.’ It was hard recidivism data which shows that education ―
specifically high school diplomas ― has enormous impact on recidivism,” said the former senior DOJ
official.

Thomas R. Kane is currently the acting director of the Bureau of Prisons, a role he has filled since January 2016. He’s been with BOP
since 1977, and had previously served stints as acting director. While it was Yates who pushed for the prison reform efforts, Kane
had been supportive of the initiative, according to the former senior DOJ official.

But Kane isn’t the permanent director, and finding someone to head the massive organization has been a challenge. Current BOP
staff interested in potentially landing the top job likely have an interest in pleasing the new DOJ leadership, even if there isn’t an
express directive to kill Obama-era prison reform efforts at this point. There’s also skepticism from the BOP’s powerful union, and
outside pressure to kill various Obama administration reform initiatives from conservative groups like Judicial Watch.

A BOP spokesperson declined to answer specific questions about the status of several components of the reform initiatives, though
they did say that prison staffers currently assist federal prisoners re-entering society in obtaining state identification “when
feasible.” (That initiative began under Obama.) But a webpage referring to those programs is marked as “archived content” on the
Justice Department site, with a disclaimer stating that the “information here may be outdated.”
 CONTENTION 2: PRISON OVERCROWDING
(HARMS)
Federal prisons are overcrowded now, that leads to reductions in essential
services for prisoners and a recidivism crisis.
Gilna 2017 Derek Prisoner Rights Advocate Legal Professional & Journalist "GAO Report finds
Federal Prison Overcrowding Accelerates," Prison Legal News 7/10
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2016/sep/9/gao-report-finds-federal-prison-
overcrowding-accelerates/

A General Accounting Office study of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that analyzed prisoner population from fiscal years
2006 through 2011, has shown that overcrowding in BOP prisons at all levels of security is increasing and has
resulted in negative effects to prisoners, staff, and infrastructure. The eighty-five-page report also shows that various states have
experienced success in not only reducing prison populations, but also lowering crime rates and cutting high corrections budgets. The
GAO does not blame the BOP for the problem as much as highlight: what many corrections experts now acknowledge as an
unsustainable trend in the federal justice system.

According to the GAO study, the BOP "is responsible for approximately 218,000 (prisoners) with a fiscal 2012 operating budget of
about $6.6 billion-the second largest budget within (the) DOJ. BOP's
population has increased by more than 400
percent since the late 1980's, and by about 50 percent since 2000," of a nationwide total of "more than 1.6
million people (about 1 in 200 'U.S. residents" who are incarcerated.

However, the conclusion that one draws from an examination of these facts and figures is that the BOP prison system is
stretched nearly to the breaking point, with overcrowding approximating forty percent in excess of rated capacity.
According to the. BOP, its "rated capacity," requires 25 percent double bunking and 75 percent single bunking in high security cells,
50 per-cent double bunking and 50 percent single bunking of cells in medium security facilities, and 100 percent double bunking of
cells in low and minimum-security facilities.

As of December 31, 2011, the BOP had 38,000 staff members to deal with its 218,000 prisoners, but has acknowledged that many
staff members whose main duties are not those of correctional officers, but rather teachers, administrators, counselors, and drug
treatment specialists are often called to perform the duties of correctional officers, resulting in loss of educational and rehabilitative
activities provided to prisoners. In short, the
BOP appears to be more concerned about maintaining order
and security than in training its prisoner population for a successful reentry back into society. Is
it any surprise that federal prisoner recidivism approaches 70%?

Also frustrating to prisoners in overcrowded facilities is the reduction in educational,

rehabilitative, and reentry services that become available, which can also lead to frustration and
anxiety. Programs such as RDAP, which theoretically, can reduce a sentence by up to a year, are often backed up, reducing the
amount of sentence credit to almost zero. Prisoners are denied entry into vocational programs and
improvement to their employment skill sets that can reduce future crime and inmate re-arrest rates. Lines at chow
halls and competition for seats in activity centers and sports venues can also cause tempers to flare. Some institutions have had to
reduce visiting-center time because available facilities are overtaxed.

The GAO study further noted that "population

pressures on both staffing levels and inmate living space have an
upward impact on serious prison violence," although, "system wide violence rates remained stable..." Nevertheless,
overcrowding is generally highest at medium and high security institutions, which could lead to increased violence in the future.
According to a union representative, medium security facilities were at risk of violent incidents because these facilities lacked the
better lockdown procedures found in higher security facilities, and noted that high gang presence in even low security facilities could
present a future problem. The GAO did not discount the fact that in the future, the "courts might require BOP to address conditions
related to crowding of that the (American Correctional Association) might revoke the accreditation of BOP institutions."
Recidivism is a major cause of prison overcrowding – reentering the prison
system causes stress on an already overextended system.
Zoukis 2014 Christopher Prisoner Advocate "The Cost of Recidivism: Victims, the Economy,
and American Prisons." PrisonEducation.com. 10 Feb. http://www.prisoneducation.com/prison-
education-news/the-cost-of-recidivism-victims-the-economy-and-american-pris.html

Even the prisons, places designed to house offenders, are burdened by high recidivism rates. As the number
of inmates rises, prison systems must find constitutionally-compliant ways to house the
increasing populations, often having to do so without the aid of additional funding. This often results in
prison overcrowding, which then further aggravates the worst aspects of incarceration: unrest,
violence, misconduct, and security concerns. While it can be easy to simply vilify prison administrations -- and some
have gone as far as to suggest that the prison administrations want former prisoners to fail -- the truth of the matter is that with
every recidivist comes another prisoner that the administration must care for, and this is simply a burden
when bed space -- and existing health, foodservice, recreation, and other essential services --
are already overextended and underfunded.

Prison overcrowding leads to suffering and violence.

Neyfakh 2015 Leon Slate staff writer “Serving Time in Overcrowded Prisons Makes Ex-Cons
More Likely to Reoffend” Slate
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/11/overcrowded_prisons_may_i
ncrease_recidivism_rates.html

The problem of prison overcrowding is usually raised in service of making the first point. Overcrowding, the argument goes,
contributes to America’s so-called correctional facilities being hellholes of human suffering. That was the
gist of the Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling in Brown v. Plata, which said that overcrowding levels in California prisons—where the
average occupancy rate across all state institutions was 187 percent from 1991 through 2010—amounted to a form of cruel
and unusual punishment.
That argument might not be persuasive to people who have a hard time feeling sorry for convicted criminals. But the results of a
new study suggest it’s not the only argument against overcrowding: It turns out that people
who have served time in
severely overcrowded prisons are much more likely to violate their parole after their release. That
means they are more likely to be rearrested and to end up back in prison, forcing the government to spend more money on them in
the process.

Michael Ruderman, the Touro University doctoral student in medicine and public health who conducted the study, explained the findings by saying that
overcrowding might expose prison inmates to added “psychosocial stress” and poor addiction
treatment, both of which are known to make people more prone to impulsive behavior, aggression, and drug use.
Ruderman arrived at his conclusions, which were published in the journal PLOS One, by tracking former prisoners in California who
were on parole between January 2003 and December 2004. After selecting a random sample of about 13,000, he used monthly
reports from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to look at whether there was an association between
people’s likelihood of violating their parole and the average level of overcrowding in the part of the state where they did their time.
(Ruderman explained that he aggregated the prison crowding levels by region, instead of using data on individual facilities, because
of how the data was collected; this is acknowledged in the paper as one of the study’s limitations.)

Ruderman split the regions into three categories, based on the average levels of overcrowding in the prisons located there: those
with an occupancy rate of less than 190 percent of their capacity were in the “low” category, those between 190 percent and 205
percent were “medium,” and those with 205 percent and higher were “high.” What Ruderman found—after controlling for a variety
of risk factors, including sex, race, mental health status, and number of serious prior offenses—was that the people in regions with
“high” overcrowding were 2.52 times more likely to violate their parole than the ones from regions with “low” overcrowding.
The effect was particularly strong when Ruderman looked at specific types of parole violations. Cases in which the parolee failed to
show up for a meeting with his parole officer or left the state’s jurisdiction without permission were 3.56 times more likely to involve
people from regions with “high” overcrowding as “low”; people whose violation centered on drug use, drug possession, public
drunkenness, or another “Level 1” transgression were 2.44 times more likely to come from regions with “high” overcrowding as
“low.”

It’s important to note that Ruderman’s study only establishes an association—not necessarily a causal link—between overcrowding
and parole violation. But it makes intuitive sense that prisons where resources are stretched especially thin do a worse job of
delivering services to inmates suffering from mental health and drug problems, and that inmates who suffer from those conditions
would be more likely to end up getting in trouble once they’re free if they don’t receive the treatment they need while they’re in
prison.

“In severely overcrowded facilities, you no longer have the ability to protect inmates from sexual
assault and physical abuse, and you’re depriving people of basic services like medical care,” said
Ruderman in an interview. “All these things make the most marginalized, most vulnerable people in
society that much more vulnerable.”
 Plan
The United States Federal Bureau of Prisons should create a secondary school
district in federal prisons.
 CONTENTION 3: SOLVENCY
The plan is key to reducing recidivism.
Davis et al 2014 Lois M. senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation & professor at the
Pardee RAND Graduate School “How Effective Is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go
from Here?” The RAND Safety and Justice Program
http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR500/RR564/RAND_RR564.p
df

Each year, more than 700,000 incarcerated individuals leave federal and state prisons; within three
years of release, 40 percent will have committed new crimes or violated the terms of their
release and be reincarcerated. Although a number of factors impede the ability of ex-offenders to successfully
reintegrate into communities and, thus, affect recidivism rates, one key factor is that many ex-offenders do
not have the knowledge, training, and skills to support a successful return to their communities.
Research, for example, shows that ex-offenders, on average, are less educated than the general
population: 37 percent of individuals in state prisons had attained less than a high school education in 2004, compared with 19
percent of the general U.S. population age 16 and over; 16.5 percent of state prisoners had just a high school diploma, compared
with 26 percent of the general population; and 14.4 percent of state prison inmates had at least some postsecondary education,
compared with 51 percent of the general U.S. adult population. Moreover,
literacy levels for the prison
population also tend to be lower than that of the general U.S. population.

This lower level of educational attainment represents a significant challenge for exoffenders
returning to local communities, because it impedes their ability to find employment. A lack of
vocational skills and a steady history of employment also have an impact, with research showing that incarceration impacts
unemployment and earnings in a number of ways, including higher unemployment rates for ex-offenders and lower hourly wages
when they are employed. Also, individuals being released to the community face a very different set of job market needs than ever
before, given the growing role of computer technology and the need for at least basic computer skills.

Given these gaps in educational attainment and vocational skills and the impact they have on
ex-offenders, one strategy is to provide education to inmates while they are incarcerated, so that
they have the skills to support a successful return to their communities. Historically, support for educational programs within
correctional settings has waxed and waned over time as the nation’s philosophy of punishment has shifted from rehabilitation to
crime control.

Most reliable studies prove prison education reduces recidivism – contrary

studies are flawed and outdated.
Davis et al 2014 Lois M. senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation & professor at the
Pardee RAND Graduate School “How Effective Is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go
from Here?” The RAND Safety and Justice Program
http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR500/RR564/RAND_RR564.p
df

More recent reviews, using meta-analysis techniques, question the conclusions of the earlier
work, finding evidence of a relationship between correctional education program participation
before release and lower odds of recidivating after release (Wilson, Gallagher, and MacKenzie, 2000; MacKenzie, 2006; Aos,
Miller, and Drake, 2006). However, the most recent meta-analyses (Aos, Miller, and Drake, 2006; MacKenzie, 2006) did not consider employment outcomes; thus, whether
program participation is associated with postrelease success in the labor market remained unclear.
These earlier reviews provide the context for the current systematic review and metaanalysis. Our
systematic review
scanned the universe of potential documents to compile all available empirical research studies
that examine the effect of correctional education programs on the three outcomes of interest—
recidivism, postrelease employment, and reading and math scores. This search yielded 1,112 documents, of
which 267 were identified as primary empirical studies. To be in our meta-analysis, the study needed to meet
three eligibility criteria: (1) evaluate an eligible intervention, defined here as an educational
program administered in a jail or prison in the United States published (or released) between January
1, 1980, and December 31, 2011; (2) measure the effectiveness of the program using an eligible
outcome measure, which for our meta-analysis included recidivism, postrelease employment,
and achievement test scores; and (3) have an eligible research design, which, for our purposes, is one
where there is a treatment group comprising inmates who participated in or completed the correctional education program and a
comparison group of inmates who did not.

Of the 267 primary empirical studies, 58 met all three eligibility criteria.1 With
respect to recidivism, based on the
higher-quality research studies, we found that, on average, inmates who participated in
correctional education programs had a 43 percent lower odds of recidivating than inmates who
did not, thus indicating that correctional education is an effective strategy for reducing
recidivism. 2 This estimate is based only on nine effect sizes from studies that met higher levels of rigor (i.e., earned 4s or 5s on
the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale), but the results were very similar even when the lower-quality
studies were included in the analysis. This translates to a reduction in the risk of recidivating of
13 percentage points for those who participated in correctional education programs versus
those who did not.

Education during incarceration significantly decreases recidivism rates-studies

prove
Corrections Forum 2015 "Education's Impact on Recidivism." Correctionsforum.net
http://www.correctionsforum.net/article/educations-impact-on-recidivism-41872

RAND meta-analytic findings provide support for the premise that receiving correctional
education while incarcerated reduces an individual’s risk of recidivating after release. The report
states that: “After examining the higher-quality research studies, we found that, on average, inmates who participated in
correctional education programs had 43 percent lower odds of recidivating than inmates who
did not…. This translates into a reduction in the risk of recidivating of 13 percentage points for those who participate in
correctional education programs versus those who do not.” Education was also shown to improve inmates’
chances of obtaining employment after release, and employment has been shown to have a
positive impact on recidivism rates. The odds of obtaining employment post-release among
inmates who participated in either academic or vocational correctional education was 13
percent higher than the odds for those who did not participate. In addition, it was found that “those who
participated in vocational training were 28 percent more likely to be employed after release from prison than those who did not
receive such training.” While education of inmates has been to generally on the decline up to 2008 in state and federal facilities for
various reasons, the report states, some departments have bucked the trend. These departments are conducting research and
analysis, and with that data are providing strong educational programs that include academics and vocational programs relevant in
today’s job marketplace.
Education reduces recidivism
Tarwater 2016 Charles student of Sociology in the college-in-prison program Common Good
Atlanta in Phillips State Prison “The Mind of the Oppressed: Recidivism as a Learned Behavoir”
Wake Forest Journal of Law & Policy lexis

But education is more. Education alone reduces recidivism, and the statistics demonstrate that "lower
rates of recidivism are independent of post-release employment." n13 This seems to be true because
education "normalizes" the offender. n14 Daniel Karpowitz [*360] suggests that "prison education program
participation normalizes [inmates] by offering relief from the pains of imprisonment and by
helping inmates to appreciate and adopt pro-social norms." n15 Lia Epperson notes that education
"awaken[s] [our] cultural values, . . . prepar[es] [us] for later professional training, . . . and . . .
help[s] [us] to adjust normally to [our] environment." She stresses that "it is doubtful that any
[person] may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if [he] is denied the opportunity of an
education." n16 Epperson also notes that "[e]ducation is the teaching of overall citizenship, to learn to live together with fellow
citizens, and above all to learn to obey the law." n17 Finally, Deborah Stone notes that "the most important goal of
education [is] creative and critical thinking." n18
CASE EXTENSIONS
 Overcrowding Now
Federal prisons are overcrowded now and the Trump administration is moving
away from previous incarceration reducing reforms.
Ghandnoosh 6/2017 Nazgol Ph.D. Research Analyst at The Sentencing Project “Federal
Prisons at a Crossroads” The Sentencing Project http://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/06/Federal-Prisons-at-a-Crossroads.pdf

Federal prisons are overcrowded and disproportionately comprised of people of color serving
sentences for low-level drug offenses. The federal system may now be drifting away from smarter criminal
justice policies that sought to end the era of mass incarceration, reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the
criminal justice system, and enable better investments in public safety. Rather than turn away from the recent
reforms in federal sentencing, President Trump’s administration and Congress should rely on
research and evidence of successful reforms to develop more fair and effective substance abuse
and crime policies.
 AT: Prison Population Decreasing Now
New Trump administration polices will reverse the current trend of reducing
prison populations. Overcrowding will only get worse.
Ghandnoosh 6/2017 Nazgol Ph.D. Research Analyst at The Sentencing Project “Federal
Prisons at a Crossroads” The Sentencing Project http://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/06/Federal-Prisons-at-a-Crossroads.pdf

Congress, the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC), and the DOJ reduced the federal prison
population by reforming sentencing laws, revising sentencing guidelines, and modifying charging
directives, respectively. But the DOJ’s budget proposal for 2018 forecasts a 2% increase in the
federal prison population.1

The policy changes contributing to this reversal include:

• Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ directive

instructing federal prosecutors to increase their reliance on
mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug convictions.2

• The Attorney General’s instruction to federal prosecutors to increasingly pursue criminal

convictions for immigration law violations and his memorandum paving the way for greater use of
private prisons.3

• Congressional proposals to create new mandatory minimum sentences or increase existing

ones for a range of drug, immigration, and violent crimes.4

These policy shifts run counter to research and practice on effective crime policy. This brief explains
why increasing the use and length of prison terms for people with drug convictions in particular–who account for half of the federal
prison population– will produce little public safety benefit while carrying heavy fiscal, social, and human costs.5

Experience with criminal justice policy changes at the federal and state levels shows it is possible
to substantially cut reliance on prisons without any adverse effects on public safety.
 EDUCATION SOLVES RECIDIVISM
Education reduces recidivism
Obama 2017 Barack former president of the US and constitutional law scholar “Commentary:
The President’s Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform” Harvard Law Review lexis

These reforms have also included a new emphasis on prison education and on working toward reentry. Studies
have shown
that inmates [*832] who participate in correctional education programs have significantly lower
odds of returning to prison than those who do not, and that every dollar spent on prison
education saves four to five dollars on the cost of reincarceration. n105 As a result, in 2016, the
Department of Justice announced that BOP was building a semiautonomous school district
within the federal prison system -- one that blends face-to-face classroom instruction with
education software on mobile tablets. n106 At the same time, BOP has been developing standardized, evidence-based
programs to reduce recidivism, focusing on the core behavioral, mental health, and substance abuse issues that give rise to
criminality. n107

Education solves recidivism

Zoukis 2015 Christopher Prisoner Advocate and Prison Legal News contributing writer “The
Importance of Effective Correctional Education” http://www.prisoneducation.com/prison-
research-papers/the-importance-of-effective-correctional-education/

America's prison system is overcrowded, expensive, and broken, but prison education can fix
many of its problems. Upgrading education would bring fiscal, social, and correctional benefits.
Released offenders could be properly rehabilitated, with the knowledge and skills to find jobs, pay taxes, and enrich the economy.
Around 40% of released offenders return to prison within three years, and up to 80% within 10 years. This model is not sustainable
(Davis, Bozick, Steele, Saunders, & Miles, 2013).

Boosting High School Attendance

Around 40% of prisoners have no high school diploma or GED (Harlow, 2003). Earning a GED in
prison is associated with 30% less recidivism (Davis et al., 2013), up to 50% of an increase in
employment rates (Holloway & Moke, 1986), and approximately $1,000 more in yearly wages (Tyler & Kling, 2007). Yet 25%
of state prisons, 29% of private prisons, and 45% of local jails don’t offer high school education (Harlow, 2003). Secondary
education should be available in all prisons, even if only as self-directed computer learning.

Prison education reduces recidivism

DOJ March 6, 2017 “PRISON REFORM: REDUCING RECIDIVISM BY STRENGTHENING THE
FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS” https://www.justice.gov/archives/prison-reform

Building a “school district” within the federal prison system. Research shows
that inmates who participate in
correctional education programs have 43 percent lower odds of returning to prison than those
who do not, and that every dollar spent on prison education saves four to five dollars on the
costs of re-incarceration.[2] With guidance from the Bronner Group, an educational consulting firm, BOP is building a semi-
autonomous school district within the federal prison system and will offer programs for adult literacy/basic skills, high school
diplomas, post-secondary education, and expanded opportunities for individuals with learning disabilities. In November 2016, the
Bureau announced that it hired Amy Lopez, a veteran correctional educator, to serve as the first “superintendent” of the BOP school
district. Under the new system, each federal inmate will be assessed upon incarceration to determine his or her education level and
determine the type and level of instruction needed. That “individualized education plan” will follow the inmate through his or her
time in BOP’s custody.
Education solves recidivism
Jones 2016 Susan Managing Editor CNS News “DOJ Establishing a School District in Federal
Prison System” CNS News http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/justice-
department-establishing-school-district-federal-prison-system

Research shows that inmates who participate in

Building a school district within the federal prison system.
correctional education programs have 43 percent lower odds of returning to prison than those
who do not, and that every dollar spent on prison education saves four to five dollars on the
cost of re-incarceration. BOP is building a semi-autonomous school district within the federal prison system, which will
offer programs for literacy, high school diplomas and post-secondary education, along with expanded opportunities for individuals
with learning disabilities. Today, BOP also announced that it has hired Amy Lopez, an experienced educator in the Texas prison
school system, to serve as the first superintendent of BOP’s school district.
 Recidivism Causes Overcrowding
High recidivism rates cause overcrowding in prison
Lappi-Seppälä 2010 Tapio Director, National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Finland “The
Causes of Overcrowding in Prisons”
http://www.unafei.or.jp/english/pdf/Congress_2010/12Tapio_Lappi-Seppala.pdf

The increase in the use of reimprisonment has resulted in severe overcrowding. In this paper, overcrowding is
given a technical definition with the help of the statistical occupancy rate. Overcrowding means simply that the number of prisoners
exceeds the official prison capacity (over 100 % occupancy rate). For the moment, this is the only available measure for wider
comparisons between countries. The main problem with this measure is that the extent of overcrowding in this sense depends
heavily on national/local standards. County which allow four prisoners in one cell may report “free space” if some cells are occupied
by only three prisoners, while countries with single-cell accommodation as a norm may report overcrowding with much less
“objective” overcrowding. Neither does this measure take into account differences in space, or in other prison conditions.
Reoffending rules have a significant impact on courts sentencing practices. Up till the mid-1970s Finland had mechanical recidivism
rules which led to almost automatic aggravation of sentences after a certain number of previous convictions. By allowing the court
more discretion and by restricting the role of reoffending in sentencing prison sentences for property offences (where reoffending is
most common) were reduced. Today mechanical reconviction rules are still one key factor behind overly long
prison terms in 58 several parts of the world. Sometimes rigid definitions for organized crime have the same impact (for
example stipulating that any offence committed together by several persons is to be treated as a form of organized crime). As a
result,
a substantial part of prisoners may be serving unduly long sentences for fairly trivial
property offences. This is much due to the fact that in this offence type reoffending is generally common and
rigid recidivism sentencing provisions lead easily to unduly harsh penalties. Rigid early release practices
Early release and parole procedures are another key factor affecting the extent of the use of imprisonment. In the 1950s, and even
into the 1960s, Finland had quite rigid early release provisions, which granted the possibility for parole only after six months of a
prison term had passed. This minimum time was gradually reduced to 14 days, and early release was made a semi-automatic
practice now reaching 99 % of all prisoners. Also, the rules of parole revocation were made more flexible. All these reforms had an
immediate impact on the Finnish incarceration rates. Today the pivotal role of parole and early release is demonstrated by those
countries with increasing prisoner rates as a result of the adoption of a determinate sentencing system. This effect is escalated if
prior sentencing practice remains the same, but prisoners are denied parole.
 Overcrowding Impact
Overcrowding leads to disease spread and mental health disasters. It is
unnecessary infliction of pain.
Newman & Scott 2012 William Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Training
Director & Charles Professor and Training Director, Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Program,
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC-Davis School of Medicine “Brown v. Plata:
Prison Overcrowding in California” Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
http://jaapl.org/content/40/4/547.long
One fact that can easily be overlooked when focusing on overcrowding is that the Supreme Court affirmed the lower federal court's
authority to mandate that California's prison population be decreased under the PLRA. Ultimately, however, overcrowding was a
central focus of the Plata ruling. Nobody has argued that inmates experience benefits from overcrowding. Rather,
overcrowding most likely adds to the already stressful experience of being incarcerated.14
Institutional control is one problem that appears to become more challenging in overcrowded
prisons. One study showed a substantial increase in both the number and rate of disciplinary infractions corresponding with
decreased square footage of living space per inmate.15 There are also possible medical and mental health
sequelae related to overcrowding. For example, communicable diseases are significantly more
prevalent in overcrowded facilities.16,–,18 However, evidence regarding the mental health sequelae secondary to
overcrowding is less clear.19 Cox and colleagues20 reported increased rates of suicide and psychiatric
commitment in prisons with increased populations that did not have proportionally enlarged
facilities. While one can assume that overcrowding affects the mental health of the inmates, few published studies support that
conclusion in a systematic way.

overcrowding in California's prisons caused the unnecessary

In their Plata decision, the Supreme Court ruled that
and wanton infliction of pain on the inmates. One important consideration is therefore how the Plata decision
differed from Chapman,9 the Supreme Court's 1981 decision which deemed the practice of double-celling constitutional. The
answer appears to be based on the overall conditions within the facilities. In Chapman, the Court clearly referenced the
appropriateness of the physical environment and medical care provided. However, in Plata, the Court frequently discussed
inadequacies of the physical environment and medical care provided. The Court determined that these factors were so deficient that
they caused the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain on the inmates.
 Right to Education
Education is a fundamental right for prisoners – refusal to provide education is
fueled by ignorance and fear.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
7/28/2009 “Prisoners’ right to education”
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Prisonersrighttoeducation.aspx
In his report, Muñoz refers to the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, a resolution adopted by the United Nations in
1990, which states that people in prisons retain the human rights and fundamental freedoms set out in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the “right to take part in cultural activities and
education aimed at the full development of the human personality.”

“Human dignity, core to human rights, implies respect for the individual,” Muñoz says, “in his actuality
and also in his potential. As education is uniquely and pre- eminently concerned with learning, fulfilling
potential and development it should therefore be a fundamental concern… not simply a
utilitarian add-on should resources ‘allow’ it.”

One of the major barriers to the education of prisoners identified by Muñoz is public indifference and ignorance. “These (public)
attitudes”, he says, “are fuelled by an often equally ill-informed and ill-advised media which… focus
almost exclusively on unrepresentative individual violent events.” Add to that the “ready
willingness of politicians to reflect these fears in penal policy” and the result is a general
reluctance to embed prisoners’ right to education in legislation.

Policy makers refusal to provide education for prisoners should be rejected.

Aalai 2014 Azadeh assistant professor of Psychology at Queensborough Community College
“Access to Education for Prisoners Key to Reform” Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-first-impression/201404/access-education-
prisoners-key-reform

The criminal justice system is bloated and out of control in this country, and yet, politicians—and Republicans
in particular—are combative towards the very types of reforms that could correct the system for the
better. For instance, in response to a program in New York to underwrite college classes in 10 state prisons, with the cost per
inmate being miniscule relative to how much it costs per year to incarcerate a prisoner, Governor Cuomo’s proposal received such
harsh political backlash (primarily by Republicans) that he dropped the initiative from his budget (Keller, 2014).

The arguments by naysayers of this policy essential came down to, “’it should be do the crime,
do the time, not do the crime, earn a degree,’” as one Senator put it (Keller, 2014, para 3). In other words,
education is a privilege, and if you commit a crime, that entitlement is revoked; despite the fact
that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that, “Everyone has a right to
education” (Article 26). Okay, let’s put that aside for a moment, or let’s say one could make the argument if you break the law in
some kind of way perhaps those universal rights no longer apply to you. What about the fact that prisoners tend to be less educated,
so that in fact the limited opportunities that come from lack of education may be a driving factor behind criminality to begin with.
Or, that research suggests that when prisoners do participate in prison education programs,
“inmates who participated in these programs were 43 percent less likely to return to a life of
crime” (Keller, 2014, para 9). Considering that 95% of prisoners will eventually be released back into
society, those numbers are compelling.
And yet, policy makers who oppose these modest reforms have declared that access to
education will make inmates “smarter criminals,” as an upstate assemblyman against Cuomo’s initiative used a
“Breaking Bad” comparison when he exclaimed that such access would, “turn a bunch of Jesse Pinkmans into Walter Whites—all on
the taxpayer’s dime” (Keller, 2014, para 4). Yeah, because it is predominantly smart people who are breaking the law; as a
taxpayer, I am much more concerned with the $60,000 it costs per year to incarcerate a
prisoner, not the modest $5,000 per inmate it would cost to give access to education that could
have a restorative impact on the inmates’ chances of a successful transition back into civil
society (Keller, 2014).

Maybe these politicians should

spend less time watching television and more time applying
academic research to solve applicable problems. Indeed, "’Far from serving as a model for the world,
contemporary America is viewed with horror,’" James Whitman, a specialist in comparative law at Yale, wrote last year in Social
Research. ‘Certainly there are no European governments sending delegations to learn from us about how to manage prisons’"
(Liptak, 2008, para 16). It’s
time for policymakers in this country to do something sensible to alter yet
another embarrassing ranking for this country, even more so given that the U.S. is touted as the
land of the free.
AT: DA’s
 Plan Bipartisan
Prison reform is bipartisan
Grawert, Camhi & Chettiar 2017 Ames C. Justice Counsel in the Brennan Center’s Justice
Program, Natasha Special Assistant to the Director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Program,
Inimai director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice “A Federal Agenda To
Reduce Mass Incarceration” Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/a%20federal%20agenda%20to
%20reduce%20mass%20incarceration.pdf

In a divisive political environment, it is tempting to assume that progress toward federal reform
is impossible. But even today, the need to confront problems in the way we arrest, prosecute, and
incarcerate remains a rare point of trans-partisan agreement. Republican and Democratic
Congressional leaders alike acknowledge that unnecessarily long federal prison sentences
continue to impede rehabilitation, driving recidivism and economic inequality. And according to a new
poll from the Charles Koch Institute, 81 percent of Trump voters believe criminal justice reform is a “very
important” or “somewhat important” issue. More than half know someone who is in or has been to prison.5
 Cost Effective
Education is cost-effective
Davis et al 2014 Lois M. senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation & professor at the
Pardee RAND Graduate School “How Effective Is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go
from Here?” The RAND Safety and Justice Program
http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR500/RR564/RAND_RR564.p
df
Although doing a formal cost-effectiveness analysis was beyond the scope of this study, we wanted to provide some context for
what the meta-analysis findings mean. Focusing on the outcome of recidivism and using a hypothetical pool of 100 inmates, we
compared the direct costs of correctional education programs and of incarceration itself.
We found that the direct costs
of reincarceration were far greater than the direct costs of providing correctional education. More
specifically, for a correctional education program to be cost-effective—or breakeven—we estimated
that it would need to reduce the three-year reincarceration rate by between 1.9 percentage
points and 2.6 percentage points. Given that our findings indicate that participation in
correctional education programs is associated with a 13-percentage-point reduction in the risk
of reincarceration three years following release, correctional education programs appear to far
exceed the break-even point in reducing the risk of reincarceration. We also note that the results are
likely to be conservative, because they do not include the indirect costs of reincarceration.

Funding prison education is cost effective

Zoukis 2015 Christopher Prisoner Advocate and Prison Legal News contributing writer “The
Importance of Effective Correctional Education” http://www.prisoneducation.com/prison-
research-papers/the-importance-of-effective-correctional-education/

Funding is crucial to providing correctional education. Click on the infographic to discover the challenges of
funding. Each dollar invested in prison education saves around five dollars (Davis et al., 2013). That
figure increases when including savings due to averted losses to new victims, increased tax
revenues, and contributions to GDP through increased productivity and consumer spending. Click
on the infographic (above) to discover how much money states have saved investing in prison education.

Recidivism is bad for the economy and re-incarceration costs trade off with social
programs and services that prevent crime. Education programs solve.
Zoukis 2014 Christopher. "The Cost of Recidivism: Victims, the Economy, and American
Prisons." PrisonEducation.com. 10 Feb. http://www.prisoneducation.com/prison-education-
news/the-cost-of-recidivism-victims-the-economy-and-american-pris.html
Recidivism is crippling to our state and national economies. In nearly every state, the cost of state prisons has grown substantially in
the past decade. In 2007 alone, Massachusetts spent over $500 million on its prison system. Total spending on corrections
nationwide exceeds $60 billion per year. These are huge, crippling amounts of tax dollars being spent on a system which fails most of
the time. Witheach new recidivist, a new victim of crime is created, yet more tax dollars must go to re-
incarceration, and more funds are siphoned off from essential early education programs and
social services, both of which help to stop initial crime in the first place. As noted above, prison
education strives to stop this continuing -- and often intergenerational -- cycle of crime. When
funds are spent on creating and sustaining such prison education programs, the savings as a
result of slashed recidivism rates more than pay for the programs, to say nothing of monies
garnered when educated ex-prisoners are working, paying taxes, and contributing financially to
their communities by engaging in commerce.
AT: CPs
 AT: States CP
Federal prison policy is modeled by state and local prisons, federal reform is
necessary.
Grawert, Camhi & Chettiar 2017 Ames C. Justice Counsel in the Brennan Center’s Justice
Program, Natasha Special Assistant to the Director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Program,
Inimai director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice “A Federal Agenda To
Reduce Mass Incarceration” Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/a%20federal%20agenda%20to
%20reduce%20mass%20incarceration.pdf

Of course, because 87
percent of prisoners are housed in state facilities,4 changes to state and local law
are necessary. But history proves that decisions made in Washington affect the whole criminal
justice system, for better or worse. Federal funding drives state policy, and helped create our current crisis of mass incarceration. And the
federal government sets the national tone, which is critical to increasing public support and
national momentum for change. Without a strong national movement, the bold reforms needed
at the state and local level cannot emerge.

Federal focus key

King et al 2015 Ryan senior fellow in the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute “How to
reduce the federal prison population” Urban Institute http://webapp.urban.org/reducing-
federal-mass-incarceration/

The federal prison system is by far the nation’s single largest jailer, with a total of 205,795 inmates at the
beginning of October 2015. That’s roughly 50,000 more people in custody than in the second-largest prison jurisdiction, Texas.

Though the states collectively incarcerate the majority of people in prison in the United States—
nearly 1.4 million as of 2014—any conversation about mass incarceration must consider the federal
prison population. The growth, size, and cost of the federal system jeopardize the safety and
security of inmates and staff, restrict the ability to provide programs designed to reduce recidivism,
and crowd out other fiscal priorities.

At a time when Washington, DC, has been defined by partisan gridlock, federal
prison reform appears to have
captured the attention of lawmakers as a result of rapidly expanding consensus that the federal
prison system is too large, too costly, and in dire need of comprehensive reform.
AT: K’s
AT: K of Reform
 Reform Good
Reform is not mutually exclusive with more transformative agendas. Criminal law
reform can lead us away from the carceral state.
McLeod 2017 Allegra Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Center “REVIEW ESSAY:
Beyond the Carceral State” Texas Law Review lexis

In an attempt to imagine a way beyond our carceral state, taking Gottschalk's important critical analysis as a
starting point, this Review Essay explores both more perilous paths and potential openings in contemporary
criminal law reform efforts. The sense of inevitability suggested by Gottschalk's scathing critique
may be misplaced, not because of any lack of good reasons for despair, but because there are at least conceivable
means of engaging the contemporary popular commitment to criminal law reform toward more
transformative ends over the long term.
Though Gottschalk's work makes a vital contribution to our understanding of the shortcomings of proposed reform, she treats quite
disparate reform projects as largely of a piece, particularly in their anticipated impotence. As such, Gottschalk
undervalues
the potential of mounting public outcry to propel change and particularly the significance of the
emergent social movement focused on criminal law reform and racial and social justice that has
taken shape in recent years. n16

In the aftermath of the tragic killings of African-American citizens in Florida, Missouri, New York, Maryland,
South Carolina, Ohio, and elsewhere, following years of unredressed racial violence, this new social movement has
called for an end to U.S. carceral practices, proclaiming that Black Lives Matter. n17 Over the past
several years, thousands of citizens have taken to the streets in solidarity in cities across the country. n18 Partly in [*656] response
to public outcry, the Department of Justice launched investigations into numerous police departments' and criminal courts'
practices. n19 In the months following the publication of Gottschalk's book, the Movement
for Black Lives has
become a powerful voice in contemporary political discourse, reshaping national conversations
about race and criminal law enforcement. n20

Gottschalk makes plain that so far these various criminal law reform initiatives have produced
minimal change. Yet, in this Essay, I attempt to identify among ongoing reform efforts discrete
commitments or currents that threaten particularly pernicious unintended consequences and
those that have the potential to bring about more far-reaching transformation. One predominant
approach, most notable in Texas, promotes decarceration as a component of a regressive fiscal program, which I will call "neoliberal
penal reform"--extending Gottschalk's critical discussion of neoliberalism and criminal law reform. These initiatives disguise but do
not abandon current carceral practices, while potentially entrenching overcriminalization and hyperincarceration--in a manner that
may be even more destructive than Gottschalk identifies. In fact, meaningful
decarceration will cost money as resources
must be directed to address social dislocation, unemployment, and violence by means other than
criminal law enforcement, and to support individuals and communities devastated by incarceration.
Additionally, decarceration efforts rooted primarily in cost-cutting [*657] threaten to displace more promising reform, particularly
if their destructive entailments are not identified.

A separate approach in contemporary reform, however, centers not only on modestly reducing drug-related
incarceration but also on developing an array of related programs including jail diversion, bail reform, reentry support,
alternative violence prevention, and restorative justice conferencing. In combination, these projects attempt to more
substantially transform U.S. criminal procedures in large part by fostering security through mechanisms other than
police and prisons and by attending to racial and economic inequality in criminal law enforcement. n21 While on their own terms, as
Gottschalk persuasively demonstrates, these efforts will not substantially reduce incarceration or predatory criminal law
enforcement, these projects could, I will argue, open the door to more thoroughgoing change precisely
because their inadequacy may provoke deeper public reflection regarding necessary change. In
other words, the gap between mounting public interest in criminal law reform and the impotence of
proposed drug law and related reform measures could be the impetus for a broader public reckoning
with our carceral state--informed by the critical insights of impacted communities and experts,
including Gottschalk's own work, as well as by the creative and compelling advocacy of the Black Lives
Matter movement and other contemporary movements for social, racial, and economic justice.

This is not to deny the enormous obstacles to change that Gottschalk powerfully illuminates. But it remains
at least possible to pursue existing pathways to reach more expansive goals. This Essay might be
understood, then, as an effort to marshal an optimism of the will over a pessimism of the intellect by
attending to how certain currents in contemporary criminal law reform could perhaps serve as
an occasion for a public reconsideration of more comprehensive and promising alternative
frameworks for carceral change--that is, as an opportunity to envision a form of security not
measured "in chains and corpses." n22

Gesture of reform has transformative potential

McLeod 2017 Allegra Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Center “REVIEW ESSAY:
Beyond the Carceral State” Texas Law Review lexis

One conclusion that could be drawn from this is that little

can be done to fundamentally change U.S. carceral
practices--and indeed this is the conclusion some scholars and commentators, including Gottschalk, draw. n146 But these
circumstances might also provide a public occasion for imagining more meaningful alternatives to
our carceral state. Beyond drug law reform, how might we approach the project of decarceration? What responses other
than incarceration might address other types of crime beyond drug offenses? To what extent is the U.S. prison boom responsible for
maintaining public safety and security? What causes violent crime, and [*680] what, other than current sentencing policies, might
serve to prevent interpersonal violence?

This gesture toward other possibilities in public discourse and perhaps even in the legislative
arena is not merely an effort to generate a less dispiriting account of our possible futures, but to
take seriously the potential of rejuvenated public engagement at the local level with questions of
enormous common concern while recognizing both the plurality and contingency of political and
legal discourse. The aim of such efforts might be to respond to the circumstances at hand
opportunistically without foregoing a further reaching, more ambitious political vision. As social
theorist Michel De Certeau reminds us, even in circumstances of relative hopelessness, individuals retain
their capacity to turn the context at hand to their own independent purposes. n147 De Certeau seeks
to reorient our political engagement from large-scale revolutionary or top-down models of political change to a more situational
practice that he refers to as "tactical" politics. n148 He writes of the individual's capacity to make unanticipated use of the
circumstances at hand: "Without leaving the place where he has no choice but to live and which lays down its law for him, he
establishes within it a degree of plurality and creativity . . . draw[ing] unexpected results from his situation." n149 Tactics are
weapons of the relatively weak, strategic deployments of fleeting opportunities to advance
otherwise unattainable ends: "there are countless ways of 'making do'"--and De Certeau understands the use of tactics
ultimately as an art of "making do." n150 Particularly in this moment of a growing commitment in many
quarters to decarcerate, rather than resign ourselves to the limitations of the present, we
should remain alert to opportunities to tactically engage the gap between expressed desires for
change and the inadequacy of current proposals.

Further, to
limit political possibilities to the projected results of particular pieces of proposed or
enacted legislation offers an unduly static conception of politics and of law. Instead, we might
recognize how criminal law enforcement practices may be shaped by public engagement, even
absent or prior to legislative change--as the New York case illustrates--and how the inadequacy of existing drug law
reform initiatives might be understood as an opening to confront entrenched interests toward more transformative ends.

Near term projects don’t replace long term abolition strategies

McLeod 2017 Allegra Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Center “REVIEW ESSAY:
Beyond the Carceral State” Texas Law Review lexis

Yet, any of these various projects may well be tactically engaged to achieve other, more transformative
goals. In the end, after all, there is generally no way out but through. There is no way of
confronting present injustice other than by making do--making the most of the opportunities
and circumstances at hand. Despite their limitations and perils, if drug law and neoliberal penal
reform in more conservative jurisdictions modestly reduce carceral severity and are the only reform
inroads available, these initiatives may be preferable to any plausible alternatives and to the status
quo. In many places, both impulses may be necessary to achieve majority support. Still, in the process of engaging
achievable near-term reform projects, it remains critical to be vigilant about less visible threats
posed by certain reform agendas as well as to attend to more promising visions of how to
dismantle the carceral state, both for the possibilities of a noncarceral future those visions may
hold, and because they may orient the tactical engagement of near-term reform toward more
promising aspirational horizons.
 Perm Solves
Providing education to federal prisoners is reform in pursuit of abolition – the
two are not mutually exclusive.
McLeod 2017 Allegra Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Center “REVIEW ESSAY:
Beyond the Carceral State” Texas Law Review lexis

We might recognize this reform framework as an effort to refuse and supplant prisons and punitive
policing with other social projects--with employment, housing, quality education--as well as to
proliferate mechanisms for restorative accountability. In the words of historian and [*704] prison activist Dan
Berger, this may be understood as "reform in pursuit of abolition." n287 It is a call at once for
"eradication of prison" and basic economic security, but also for more modest, practicable, immediately
achievable ends: "publication of data relating to racially biased policing, and the development of best practices." n288 Andrea
Smith, of INCITE!: Women of Color Against Violence, explains of contemporary U.S. prison-abolitionist discourse: "When we
think about the prison abolition movement... it's not 'Tear down all prison walls tomorrow,' it's
'crowd out prisons' with other things that work effectively and bring communities together
rather than destroying them." n289 An advocate with Decarcerate PA put it in these terms: "Abolition is a complicated
goal which involves tearing down one world and building another." n290 Relatedly, the Movement for Black Lives
recognizes that the human right to freedom from police and vigilante violence cannot be
enjoyed without the human right to housing, education, and basic economic well-being.
This account of criminal law reform as related to economic security calls to mind W.E.B. Du Bois's writings on the close connection in
African-American historical experience between criminalization and economic dispossession. Du Bois began The Souls of Black Folk
by identifying "the shades of the prison-house closed round about us all," n291 and in Black Reconstruction in America, his
masterwork, published several decades later, he condemned the failures of Reconstruction for having rendered African-Americans
"caged human being[s]." n292 Du Bois recognized that a meaningful response to these conditions would include not just an absence
of violence but some measure of economic security, which was actively refused during a period of U.S. history Du Bois explores in a
chapter titled "Counter-Revolution of Property." n293 Freedom, yet to be realized in the accounts of Black Lives Matter and Du Bois,
is envisioned simultaneously as positive and negative freedom--it is a freedom to be left alone but in conditions adequate for human
flourishing. To
thoroughly dismantle the carceral state will require that we imagine and begin to
constitute a new state, a noncarceral state, a social state that better enables equality, freedom,
economic justice, and human flourishing.

Refusal of reforms like the plan foreclose the ability of their alternative to solve –
only the permutation remidies their link arguments.
McLeod 2017 Allegra Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Center “REVIEW ESSAY:
Beyond the Carceral State” Texas Law Review lexis

Even if these more ambitious visions of decarceration remain relatively peripheral, they
nonetheless offer a set of transformative aspirational ideas which might orient current reform
efforts, rescuing more moderate criminal law reform from its weakest and most disappointing possible futures. If
decarceration is ultimately to be part of egalitarian democratic political change, its champions will
require a conception of the state beyond the carceral state and a more expansive coalitional politics that
reaches further than the domain of criminal law and wider than the span of any narrow existing
bipartisan consensus. n295 This imaginative conjuring will not, of course, bring about desired
transformation in itself, but any such alternatives will be foreclosed if we neglect to attend to
them altogether.
 Plan  Critical Consciousness
Prison education  critical consciousness
Tarwater 2016 Charles student of Sociology in the college-in-prison program Common Good
Atlanta in Phillips State Prison “The Mind of the Oppressed: Recidivism as a Learned Behavoir”
Wake Forest Journal of Law & Policy lexis

Notwithstanding that decision, aninmate's inability to pursue education in prison directly correlates to
the recidivism rate. As I will explore in this Article, the relationship between education and recidivism is
genuine because one of the primary components of what Paulo Freire calls the "pedagogy of the [*359]
oppressed" is the oppressed's arrival at a state of "critical consciousness," which can only be
achieved through education. n10 Because the inmate is submerged in the oppressor-oppressed
dialectic upon arrival at prison and, further, because the inmate is deprived of educational
opportunities capable of mentally liberating him from his oppression, his return to prison is far
more likely--a side effect of our carceral incapacitation dynamic.