Highlights from the U.S. PIAAC Survey of Incarcerated Adults: Their Skills, Work Experience…

“The U.S.…[Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies] Survey of Incarcerated Adults [(PIAAC)] was designed to provide information to policymakers, administrators, educators, and researchers who are developing education and training policies and programs for incarcerated adults. This report highlights data from the survey’s extensive background questionnaire and direct assessments of cognitive skills. It examines the skills of incarcerated adults in relationship to their work experiences and to their education and training in prison” (p.1).

“[The report first] provides a demographic profile along with a snapshot of the cognitive skills of adults in America’s state, federal, and private prisons….The rest of the report focuses on incarcerated adults’ employment prior to incarceration, experiences with prison jobs, skills certifications, educational attainment in prison, and participation in academic programs and training classes” (p.1).

“The PIAAC Survey of Incarcerated Adults was conducted from February through June 2014, and targeted a nationally representative sample of incarcerated adults (age 16 to 74) detained in state and federal prisons, and in private prisons housing state and federal inmates. In total, there were 98 participating prisons (80 were male-only or coed and 18 were female-only). Female-only prisons were oversampled in order to arrive at 250 to 300 female inmates total. Of the 1,546 sampled inmates, 1,315 completed the prison background questionnaire (1,048 male and 267 female)” (p.1-2).

“PIAAC is designed to assess adults over a broad range of abilities, from simple reading to complex problem-solving skills, and to collect information on individuals’ skill use and back-ground. PIAAC defines four core competency domains of adult cognitive skills that are seen as key to facilitating the social and economic participation of adults in advanced economies: literacy, reading components, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments….PIAAC is not designed to provide individual scores, but rather to measure how groups of adults perform on the domains” (p.2).

Full publication title: Highlights from the U.S. PIAAC Survey of Incarcerated Adults: Their Skills, Work Experience, Education, and Training

(Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

“Comparison of U.S. incarcerated adults to the U.S. household population • The U.S. incarcerated population had lower average literacy and numeracy scores than the U.S. household population…. • Compared to their peers in the general U.S. household population, Black and Hispanic incarcerated adults scored lower on average in numeracy, but not measurably different in literacy…. • Average literacy scores were not measurably different between incarcerated adults and their household peers with the same level of educational attainment…. Prison jobs and skills use • Around two-thirds…of the survey’s respondents reported that they were employed prior to their incarceration…and 61 percent reported currently having a prison job. • Incarcerated adults with higher levels of education were more likely to have a prison job: 48 percent of those having less than a high school credential had prison jobs, compared with 73 percent of those holding Associate’s degrees…. • Incarcerated adults with a prison job scored higher on average in literacy than their peers without a prison job; however, average numeracy scores were not measurably different….Many incarcerated adults reported never having to use their literacy or numeracy skills in their current prison job…. Participation in education and skills training in prison • Forty-two percent of incarcerated adults completed some level of formal education during their current period of incarceration….Over two-thirds of incarcerated adults wanted to enroll in an academic class or program…. • Incarcerated adults who wanted to enroll in academic classes or programs of study scored higher on average in literacy and numeracy than their peers who did not want to enroll…. • Twenty-three percent of incarcerated adults participated in job training programs during their current prison term. Incarcerated adults who had participated in job training programs scored higher on average in literacy and numeracy than those who had not participated” (p.34-35). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2016
• Author(s): Rampey, Bobby D.; Keiper, Shelley; Mohadjer, Leyla; Krenzke, Tom; Li, Jianzhu; et al.
• Organizational Author(s): Educational Testing Service, Westat, and National Center for Education Statistics
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Education
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies