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FEATURING ELLEN CONDLIFFE LAGEMANN – The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other country in the world. And, of those that are incarcerated, little effort is expended for rehabilitation.

Now, a new book powerfully argues that one of the most positive things that we can do in our system of mass incarceration is to provide higher education for inmates. It’s good for the inmates themselves, it’s good for government, and it’s good for society.

Higher education initiatives have had resounding success at reducing rates of violence within prisons and recidivism of rates among released prisoners.

Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, former Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, President of the Spencer Foundation, and Distinguished Fellow of the Bard Prison Initiative at Bard College. Her new book is called Liberating Minds: The Case for College in Prison.