Preparing for Life Beyond Prison Walls: The Literacy of Incarcerated Adults Near Release

The report, Preparing for Life Beyond Prison Walls: The Literacy of Incarcerated Adults Near Release,uses the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) data to examine the characteristics of incarcerated adults who were near release as well as the relationship between various characteristics and the English literacy proficiency of this population group. Although the focus of this report is on incarcerated adults near release, several findings were true for both inmates near release and inmates not near release. The report discusses key findings for each subgroup. (Abstractor: Website Staff).

• "Incarcerated adults had lower mean prose and quantitative literacy scores than adults in the household population. • More than 90 percent of incarcerated adults were male; this is significantly more than in the general household population (48%). • Black inmates were overrepresented in comparison to the household population, while White inmates were underrepresented. • Lower percentages of incarcerated adults (16% of those near release and 14% of those not near release) had at least some computer literacy than respondents in the household population (70%). • Incarcerated adults with lower literacy tended to overestimate their self-assessments of their abilities to understand English when spoken to and to speak and read English (i.e., with responses of “very well” and “well”) compared with adults in the lower literacy household population" (p.7). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2009
• Author(s): Amodeo, Andrea; Jin, Ying; Kling, Joanna
• Organizational Author(s): American Institutes for Research
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Melissa Mack
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies