This is certainly an unorthodox way of getting your college education for free but apparently many of the 2 million people incarcerated in the United States are taking advantage of the behind the bars perk.

At first, I thought this seemed a little insane but the logic behind the education program for prisoners actually makes some sense. Prisoners that are released from incarceration have a higher chance of being a repeat offender and costing the tax payers more money if they don’t have an education or a trade skill to help them obtain gainful employment after prison.

As seen in this article (written by two life-sentenced convicts), the state of Michigan is currently trying to cure their budget woes and one of the programs on the chopping block is the education program for the prisoners. They site Malcom X in their support of the education of prisoners. “As Malcolm X said, education is a passport to the future. National studies show that college classes cut recidivism(repeat offenders returning to prison) by 30% or more. That would make a pretty good investment for state taxpayers. Are we a nation that rehabilitates and rebuilds those who make mistakes, or are we a nation that believes in revenge above redemption?”

Ok.. so back to the topic at hand… Is it worth going to jail to get free college? There certainly appears to be some cost-benefits of utilizing that approach to getting an education. The state would provide you with free room and board. Plenty of extracurricular activities are sure to be available during your downtime. Imagine all the street smarts that you would gain while being behind bars. The question though, what  law can you break that will guarantee you to only serve four-five years and then be released.  You know.. because you obviously do not want to spend more time in jail than you would in college. 😉

Definitely a little bit out of the ordinary but it does give you some food for thought…