You’re Out of Prison, Now Let’s Get to Work

Make A Change

Becoming successful in your life, your career, and your community: with the right tools, you can make it happen. At Alison, we are dedicated to giving anyone who wants join the workforce the opportunities they need to succeed.

We believe that education is the key to success, and free education that you can take at your own pace is the key to freedom. The formerly incarcerated are just as entitled to this as anybody else.

So, if you’ve been in prison and are now looking to gain new skills for a better future (or if you know somebody who is), we want to help. Let’s make a change together.

Incarceration or Education?

Do you think the prison system can be improved? Could education, giving people the skills they need to succeed, be a better alternative to incarceration? Alison believes it is, and we’ve taken action on this belief. In upstate New York a young offender by the name of Dylan Lewis was released from the threat of incarceration after having successfully completed two courses on Alison. Discover the story here.

If you want to help us make free education more available for the formerly incarcerated, either by spreading news of our offer or through a different project, get in touch with us at [email protected]. And if you want some more information on this important issue, check out some of these incredible statistics on the benefits of using education to reduce incarceration. Be informed, be active.

• Incarceration costs are soaring - the costs to incarcerate one individual for one year ranges between $30,000 and $130,000 from state to state (The Sentencing Project).
• For every dollar spent on educating an incarcerated learner, the state saves $5 in operating and re-incarceration costs, (RAND Corporation).
• Children who drop out of high school or are criminally involved as youths are more likely to be incarcerated as adults.
• Less than 50% of those incarcerated in America have a high school equivalency and are therefore less likely to hold a position that pays more than the national minimum wage, (RAND Corporation).
• Children of incarcerated parents are more likely to drop out of school and subsequently become criminally involved
• Youths who hold a high school equivalency, show motivation by engaging in self-directed learning, and are gainfully employed are less likely to become criminally involved. (The Sentencing Project).
• While incarceration rates are slowing, there are still 2.3 million incarcerated individuals in prisons, 6 million on probation and 20 million formerly incarcerated, who are increasingly marginalised.