A recent study suggests new prison inmates are more educated than cohorts from a 1992 study, and more of their parents are college-educated. In fact, the literacy scores of Black and Hispanic inmates were higher than those of Black and Hispanic high school dropouts living in society.

The National Center for Education Statistics recently released “Literacy Behind Bars: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Prison Survey.” The survey was administered to more than 18,000 adults (16 years and older), living in households in America. An additional 1,200 surveys were also dispensed to prison inmates at the state and federal levels, a sample representative of the nearly 1.4 million adults in prison. The measurement tool assessed literacy through straightforward tasks completely by the test taker. Literacy was measured in three categories — prose, document and quantitative literacy — on a scale of 0 to 500.

According to NCES, “adults who have not obtained a high school diploma or any postsecondary education are more likely to be incarcerated than adults with higher levels of education.” In 2003, incoming inmates had higher levels of educational attainment than in 1992, the study found. The parents of inmates also had higher levels of educational attainment, specifically at the postsecondary level, from 25 percent in 1992 to 33 percent in 2003. 

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Based on the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the prison population grew by approximately 55 percent from 1993 to 2003. About 43 percent of all prison inmates had a high school diploma or equivalent, and 19 percent received their degree while incarcerated

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In 1992, 49 percent of inmates did not have a high school diploma or a General Education Development certificate. That number had dropped substantially — to 37 percent — by 2003. Consequently, inmates had higher literacy scores in 2003 than in 1992. On average, inmates scored 9 points higher on prose, 6 points higher on literacy scales and 15 points higher on quantitative literacy. Still, prison inmates, on average, continue to have lower scores on all three scales than nonincarcerated adults.