Thesis: Prisons around the United States should implement and fund more higher education prison programs that would teach prisoners many different skills such as critical thinking skills, public speaking skills, self-promoting skills (i.e. skills that would help with self-esteem). These skills would help prisoners reenter into society and it has also been heavily proven that education programs reduce the recidivism rates of prisoners that were previously released. These programs are also used to help prisoners with seeking employment where the programs give the necessary skills and education to help them reach such jobs.

Audience: The audience of this paper are the elected officials of the states where its possible to enact laws that can create these higher education programs. It can be argued that those in charge of prisons could be a audience as well, however, I feel as if the at the end of the day, the state and its elected officials are the ones that ultimately make the decisions on what laws get passed how they would be placed onto prisons.

The elected officials will be more than aware of the increasing problem of an increasing prison population, which will affect the severity of recidivism and prison environments. As well, the money that is expensed paying for those incarcerated and those who reoffend, will increase based on the prison population and the amount of prisoners who are put back into prison.

That’s why I think that elected officials will not be very adamant about funding higher education programs, because the expenses that are being wasted on the incarcerated and the returning criminals can be put to better use somewhere else in the community. These programs will help in saving money in prisons as the prison population decreases and the recidivism rates drop.

Of course, the costs and whether or not these programs will truly be successful will be the main factor that might persuade these elected officials from not implementing such programs. That’s where the factual evidence will come into play in persuading them into funding such programs.

*Your reply should provide another view about the values. Was a value missed? Does the reasoning about the value seem good? Are there any concessions that you feel should be used?