Learning and Assessment Basics
Marsha Jameson
EDU 510: Assignment 1
Summer 2012

Describe the characteristics of the learners in your current (or future) role as an educator. The characteristics of my learners are as follows: males between the ages of 18-34 from single family homes; with some high school and with less than 8th grade education. Why choose people that have these particular characteristics? It is because they make-up a large part of the prison population in the United States. In 2002, it was reported that 2,019, 234 were incarcerated in United State Prisons (United Nations Survey, 2002). In 2012, it was reported by the U.S. Justice Department that seven (7) million people or one in every thirty-two (32) adults were behind bars; on probation; or on parole. Of the total, 2.2 million were in jail or in prison. According to the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College in London, the United States has more people behind bars than any other county. The U.S. incarceration rate is 737 per 100,000 people (Vicini, 2012). Why so many incarcerated? It is my belief that it is due to recidivism. What is recidivism? Recidivism is a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior, especially relapsing into criminal behavior. In the prison system, recidivism refers to released inmates who are re-convicted and re-incarcerated. The rates of recidivism have been known to be as high as fifty-percent (50%) (Reducing Recidivism Through Education, 2012). Those who contribute to recidivism have something in common. Most are male prisoners at 89.6%. The ages of 89.6% male prisoners are from 18-34 (Characteristics of Inmates, 2002). Thirty-nine (39%) of prisoners come from single-family homes (The Fatherless Generation, 2012). But, what is most troubling is this: Of the 89.2% incarcerated, 32.7% have