Narrative: c.

Maine Adult Education has a strong collaboration with correctional institutions and has increased both educational programming and instructor professional development opportunities within the past two years. Programs and services are available in state prisons, county correctional institutions, local jails, youth facilities and reentry centers. Examples of this partnership include recent efforts to not only increase educational and career pathway programs, but to also enhance collaborative planning and coordination. As a result of this integrated career planning process, adult education programs providing services to Maine correctional facilities have educational programs that are aligned, are using the same assessment tools, and are entering data in the State’s adult education longitudinal data system, MaineSTARS. The inclusion of this learner data in the adult education data system facilitates the continuity of services should a learner be transferred to another or be released.

In the spring of 2019, Maine Adult Education put forth a new AEFLA competition for the initial period of July 1, 2019-June 30, 2021 with the option of two renewal periods between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2024. Beginning in FY18, the state established nine adult education and career development areas that were aligned with the boundaries of the three local workforce boards. To encourage innovation and maximize efficiencies and resources, local adult education providers within these geographic areas were formed into hubs. With only one award anticipated for each hub, interested applicants were encouraged to collaborate with other eligible service providers. Correctional facilities were involved in the AEFLA competition as part of a hub, and with incarcerated individuals now included in the adult education database, they are included in hub enrollment counts and performance measure targets used in the funding formula to determine AEFLA allocations per hub. While the Department of Corrections has chosen over the last several years to fund its own educational programs and services, hubs are able to calculate the amount of AEFLA funding supporting correctional programming.

In addition to the AEFLA criteria of “eligible providers” (WIOA §203(5), 34 CFR 463 Preamble) applicants proposing to deliver corrections education and education for other institutionalized individuals had to provide evidence of demonstrated past effectiveness in delivering corrections education. An eligible provider could demonstrate past effectiveness by providing two consecutive years of performance data showing their effectiveness in serving eligible individuals in correctional institutions. (state requirement)

AEFLA funds are used to provide educational programming to eligible corrections learners in the following areas: adult basic education, literacy, English language acquisition, adult secondary school completion and high school equivalency preparation, concurrent enrollment, college transition, integrated education and training, peer tutoring, workforce preparation and transition services. Individuals expected to be released within five years receive priority of service.

To better serve incarcerated individuals, Maine Adult Education AEFLA recipients are committed to making the partnership with corrections even stronger by focusing efforts on:

• Increasing support and attention to reentry activities. Priority will be given to those who are likely to leave the correctional institution within five years of participation in the program. Of those currently incarcerated in local and county jails, 100 percent are scheduled to leave the facility within five years. For those in DOC facilities, 90 percent were sentenced to five years or less. When all sentences to DOC are averaged, the average length of incarceration is 18 months.
• Increasing capacity to serve low level learners. DOC has recently undertaken the goal of administering the CASAS appraisal in math and reading as part of the intake process for all prisoners entering the system. Currently 76 percent of prisoners tested were below the CASAS score of 236 in math and below 236 in reading. There is a need for more intensive service and supports to enable these learners to advance to Adult Secondary Education (ASE low).
• Enhancing access to College and Career Readiness educational opportunities and workforce preparation activities.
• Expanding access to support services that enable these individuals to transition to full, productive members of our communities.

Prisoners in Prerelease are served in five facilities that offer educational programming that include the opportunity to earn a high school credential. Depending on the facility, there are also a variety of vocational programs. Building on the successful integration of educational services, attention will now be given to increasing advising and career pathways services. As part of those career pathways services, WorkReady, a standards-based employment skills program leading to a state recognized credential is presently offered in the Maine State Prison, Maine Correctional Center, Bolduc Correctional Facility, and the Southern Maine Reentry Center as well as six county jails. To reduce recidivism, the goals of the adult education and DOC partnership include a continued emphasis on an integrated and aligned approach to program services and skills training opportunities to ease the stress of transitioning back into the community, and to create a gentle handoff approach.

Maine Adult Education will also increase the integrated, professional development opportunities available to all workforce development partners, including corrections. At the same time, the Department of Corrections made the commitment to have its self-funded educational programs meet all the performance standards of an approved adult education program. Efforts to intensify the integration of professional development between adult education and corrections included a daylong Maine Corrections Education Forum. The forum brought together Corrections and Adult Education personnel and resulted in the establishment of several integrated working groups charged with improving the coordination of intake, assessment, and reentry efforts between the agencies. For the first time in memory, DOC also organized an Education Steering Committee to bring state staff together for planning and training. These efforts are now recognized as part of the way Maine Adult Education and Department of Corrections will work together.

Corrections personnel are invited to and attend adult education professional development programs offered by the state office. Topics have included training in College and Career Readiness Standards, Maine College Transitions, high school equivalency preparation, and use of MaineSTARS. The Department of Corrections has also contracted with local adult education programs to provide assessment services in two of its “unfenced” prerelease centers, with plans in place to contract for those services at the remaining centers. Corrections educational personnel also attend, and present at the Maine Adult Education Association Annual Conference.

To further establish successful alignment with adult education the Maine Department of Corrections Education Steering Committee also chose to use the Career Pathways Plan format and process as a strategic planning tool as they restructure educational programs for the State’s correctional facilities.