WILL Initiative
The LCWC, realizing the importance of literacy for all, founded the WILL Initiative (Women Improving Lives through Literacy) two years ago at the NC Correctional Institute for Women. This program is designed to improve the lives of female inmates through literacy instruction. The WILL Initiative is internally sustained at the prison through the use of long term women prisoners as trained tutors working with other women prisoners who lack the basic ability to read. This program fills in the gaps of our correctional system by providing one-on-one basic reading instruction which is not currently available at the NCCIW. In 2007 we trained five inmates to become tutors within the prison and we’ve assessed seventeen inmates who became their students.
The facts are in regarding literacy in prison and they show that those inmates who participate in adult education have a much lower rate of recidivism than those who do not. The prison population includes disproportionate numbers of the poor and those released are often unable to find employment, often due to a lack of literacy skills. Without a job, they often lead lives that result in their reincarceration. Add to that the high cost of imprisonment and the huge increase in the prison population and it seems clear that mastery of literacy skills may be a preventive and proactive way to address the problem. This program is only at its beginning but we hope to train more tutors within the system and increase the number of students served.