Dr. Dwaun J. Warmack
Germany & Ireland
“He who opens a school door, closes a prison” Victor Hugo. Mass Incarceration has continued to plague the United States while other countries across the world have invested in education and rehabilitation. Prison rates in the U.S. are the world’s highest, at 655 people per 100,000. Based on the number of people in state prisons, local jails, federal prisons, and other systems of confinement from each U.S. state per 100,000, the PPI (Prison Policy Initiative) States of Incarceration.
Moreover, most of the nearly 700,000 state prisoners released each year in the U.S. are not prepared to meet the challenges of returning to society. More than two-thirds of released prisoners are re-arrested within three years of leaving prison, and almost half are re-incarcerated because they do not have marketable skills. Thus, they become held back by a criminal record that prevents them from being hired in many occupations, and lack the support needed to transition back into society. Through this opportunity, I can investigate these successful programs, and bring back an exemplar model to St. Louis with Harris-Stowe State University as the founding institution in America. The goal is to educate the criminal justice majors/correction officers to begin to view the prison process differently and become change agents within the St. Louis region.
Dwaun Warmack 