Why is it important to provide education opportunities for people in jails and what is being done about it?
Featured Guest:
- Adam Schauer, Dean for Adult Education
[MUSIC]
>> Steven Miller:
My name is Steven Miller and I am the communications manager at Waubonsee Community College.
We have this podcast so that people can learn more about the employees, students, partners, and programs of Waubonsee.
Adam Schauer has been the dean for adult education at Waubonsee since October 2018.
He's very active in providing opportunities for education to adults in many ways.
We sat down and talked about an important program in our community.
That is education for people who are incarcerated in area jails.
We hope you enjoy the conversation.
[SOUND]
Today we're talking to Adam Schauer.
Adam is the dean for adult education at Waubonsee and he oversees many facets of learning for adults throughout our community and our area.
And today we're talking specifically about learning opportunities for people who are in area jails.
According to a study that tracked more than 400,000 people who were released from prisons in 30 states, about two-thirds of
those people were arrested again within 3 years of release and more than 75% of those people were rearrested within 5 years.
More than half of those people who were arrested again or rearrested within a year of being released the first time.
So, Adam, with that is context, what is this thing that we're doing here at Waubonsee, Adam?
>> Adam Schauer:
So prior to joining Waubonsee Community College as the dean for adult education, I worked for an organization a non-profit in Chicago known as The Safer Foundation.
The Safer Foundation is widely known as a leader in recidivism reduction, returning citizen education, training, workforce development.
And so in probably early 2019, representative from Sheriff Ron Hayne's office, her and I had met at a small business development meeting and began discussing opportunities. And Sheriff Ron Hayne was very focused on bringing opportunities into the jail for detainees to really address the recidivism rate that they were experiencing at Kane County Jail. And education, as we know, has a transformative power to be able to help individuals. And so we began the discussion with Sheriff Ron Hayne and his staff to begin looking at opportunities to provide high school equivalency education inside of King County Jail.
>> Steven Miller:
So, Adam, you mentioned this term recidivism.
>> Adam Schauer:
Recidivism.
>> Steven Miller:
Recidivism.
>> Adam Schauer:
Mh-hm.
>> Steven Miller:
Define that term, please.
>> Adam Schauer:
Well, recidivism is essentially individuals that are incarcerated being released back into society and then committing another crime which gets them re-incarcerated within a period of time. And basically, in Illinois, we have about an 89% recidivism rate. Which means that 89% of the individuals that are being incarcerated end up reoffending within a period of time. And it begins the cycle, that of incarceration. And that's the idea of recidivism, that we're trying to break that cycle by giving people the skill sets necessary to be able to pay their debt to society, move back into society as productive members of that society, and there's also a very large cost to that.
>> Steven Miller:
Yeah.
>> Adam Schauer:
Incarceration is not cheap. It's very, very expensive at the taxpayer's expense. And so breaking that cycle, giving people the skill sets necessary to be able to return to society to be productive members, to engage in meaningful employment, has a huge economic benefit to society and the town.
>> Steven Miller:
So when did this program begin with Waubonsee and with Kane County Jail?
>> Adam Schauer:
The initial launch began in the fall of 2019 with our fall semester. We began with offering instruction at the jail with two instructors and focusing on detainees that did not have a high school equivalency.
>> Steven Miller:
So the focus is the high school equivalency level education?
>> Adam Schauer:
Correct, so the focus of this program is to give detainees the opportunity to gain their high school equivalency, to pass the state's high school equivalency certification through the HiSET test.
I guess this kind of begins the whole conversation of the recidivism factors. That basically kind of getting into the statistics that individuals that complete their high school diploma, basically it's about 43% lower odds of returning to jail within.
>> Steven Miller:
So without getting into the particulars of the cost of incarceration versus education, it just stands to reason that to educate is better than to incarcerate. But in this topic of doing both, people who are incarcerated being educated, so are there any studies or any statistics or anything that tells us the cost benefit of this?
>> Adam Schauer:
Well, according to the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Counsel, it basically cost Illinois taxpayers more than $13 billion, if not annualy, but over the next five years if nothing is done to curtail the current recidivism rate.
>> Steven Miller:
That recidivism rate of 8 or 9% you mentioned, right?
>> Adam Schauer:
Correct, and basically the council also identified that just by lowering that recidivism rate by 1% it basically would save the state of Illinois about $10 million annually.
And so bringing in these programs where individuals are able to achieve their high school equivalency, and then also bring in different occupational programs into the jails and prisons, giving people an opportunity to be able to find meaningful employment afterwards is part of this attempt to really reduce that rate. And because, many times also, one of the biggest things to recidivism is the way that the system is currently set up. Many individuals-
>> Steven Miller:
So explain that, that's interesting, go ahead.
>> Adam Schauer:
So essentially, individuals with backgrounds, they quote/unquote pay their debt to society. They are released back into society but they have a background which prevents them from finding gainful employment. Many times they face discrimination in finding housing. So we incarcerate individuals, we release them without gaining any sort of skill set during their time back into society, and we expect them to be able to be meaningful members of society. But yet finding employment that's going to pay a living wage is very, very difficult because of the lack of education, because of that background that will show up in background checks. Trying to find housing, that's also a big struggle for many returning citizens.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
And so they get to this point where they can't find meaningful employment. They can't find housing. And they eventually just revert back to what originally landed them in prison in the first place. And thus we see the recidivism.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
So we need to break that cycle, give them the skill sets, and getting the high school equivalency is that first step. To being able to get access to higher education, training, financial aid, all of that.
>> Steven Miller:
So because you're operating these programs in area county jails,both Kane and Kendall County, correct?
>> Adam Schauer:
Correct.
>> Steven Miller:
I mean, the county jail is, the people you're working with are probably not there for long periods of time. So it's probably and I'm asking, is it realistic to maybe in the future for this program to expand to offering college credit classes. Or is this something just because of where we're at and the population we have here, just the nature of the program is gonna stay focused on high school equivalency, where's our opportunity to expand it to credit, college credit.
>> Adam Schauer:
There are many very successful models throughout the country where the local community colleges or state universities have applied credit bearing classes to the incarcerated population. The jails are different just because as you said it is in many ways transitory. Many individuals that are there are for shorter periods of time or pending conviction, or release, which, does bring in a certain amount of challenges in providing that education.
But as individuals transition to the prisons, there are educational opportunities that they would be able to continue at the local prisons throughout the state. But we've also built a strong network to help individuals that are transitioning out of the jail, to be able to be aligned with their local community college. So they're able to come into the program, begin working on that high school equivalency with the partnership with the local regional offices of education, both Kane and Kendall. They are tested in the jail.
We do have some individuals that will be completing all portions of their high school equivalency soon and be receiving their certificate from the state of Illinois for their high school equivalency.
>> Steven Miller:
While they're incarcerated?
>> Adam Schauer:
While they are incarcerated. But even then, individuals say that during their time with us, they're only able to pass one or two portions of that high school equivalency. We have a mechanism in place where those individuals will be referred to Waubonsee Community College, Elgin Community College or the Community College where they're going to be residing with those transitional services.
So that we really kind of build this compendium of service where they're able to transition from the jail. Into a local community college, complete their high school equivalency and then potentially move on for additional training, additional education.
>> Steven Miller:
Will that be career training or transfer education?
>> Adam Schauer:
Correct.
>> Steven Miller:
Okay. Okay, so question that came to mind, so What is the scope of the problem here for those of us who don't know? How many in the two counties were operating, and how many people who are incarcerated are there to serve in this way?
>> Adam Schauer:
Well, the need is greater than the capacity that we're able to provide.
At Kane county, we are providing educational services directly in the housing units and these housing units, they have facilities but they are not what you would call a traditional classrooms.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure limited.
>> Adam Schauer:
Correct, the numbers are very limited in that we're able to provide direct instruction within those facilities and the same is true at Kendall. At Kendall, were able were pretty much limited to about 10 students with the space that they have. But what we've done to kind of address this, and, both of the administration's that both Kane and Kendall are very progressive in looking at the opportunities for the detainees to be able to provide educational content while they're detained.
And so to that end, we've kind of built a model that is very much hybrid in nature. So our instructors are in class working with individuals but the inmates have access to tablets. And so they're able to supplement their instruction, the one on one instruction by utilizing this hybrid format and get educational content while our instructors are not there and we're able to monitor that. So through a partnership with the tablet companies, we have been given access to where we can monitor the student's tablet usage. And be able to apply
that to the classroom.
So our instructors are very much differentiating instruction. So in the same classroom, you may have one individual that is working on their language arts. While another individual is working on their science module. And hey supplement this through this tablet program, which allows the detainees to be able to access that content during the whole time that they're able to have access to these tablets.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
So it's very much a unique model in that aspect.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure, so obviously something like this involves a lot of partnerships, and it's Waubonsee partnering with the counties and you mentioned the sheriff office and things.
So who are some of these other partners? Obviously there's technology involved. Who are the partners that are really supporting all this?
>> Adam Schauer:
It really is a big consortium of individuals.
First off, it starts at the top with the sheriffs, Sheriff Hain and Sherrif Baird. Both very much focused on bringing opportunities to the detainees to try to A, not only keep our community safe, but also provide opportunities so that these individuals break that cycle, the revolving door of incarceration.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
And there's considerable savings to the taxpayers with it.
So, it starts with them and their focus on bringing this in and then. We have individuals that have reached out to us and in partnering with them. With Kane County, we've partnered with Elgin Community College's adult education program to make sure that, that handoff for the individuals.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
That are transitioning out of the jail. The majority of individuals that are incarcerated they're coming from either Waubonsee Community College's district or Elgin Community College's district. So we want to make sure that those individuals have that warm handoff to make sure that what we started and the work that they've begun, continues and they finish.
>> Steven Miller:
Wherever they go, because our community
college district boundaries do not overlay
perfectly with like county boundaries and
all these other jurisdictions.
So these kinds of partnerships with
neighboring colleges is important to
ensure that that warm handoff
that you mentioned happens.
>> Adam Schauer
Correct, correct.
And the we all have the same mission and we all have the same focus and providing value to our communities. And this is one of the major initiatives.
As we know being an education, that high school diploma, that high school equivalency certificate is so important from everything. From being able to get into the unions, getting access to financial aid.
It's really transformative for
many of the individuals that take
advantage of this opportunity.
>> Steven Miller:
So you mentioned this full budget of this first cohort. Is it a cohort? Or do you call it a cohort or the first sessions?
>> Adam Schauer:
It's not necessarily a cohort because of the transitional nature of the jails which does bring in its own challenges.
But, it's, yes, I mean, this is basically we're being in the first year I would consider this a pilot program for all of us as we learn.
>> Steven Miller:
So given that this is the first year of this program, so, Hear in a few months we'll be able to look back and at the first year and measure success effectiveness.
How is this trend? How do you see this working to this point?
>> Adam Schauer:
We launched with Kane County in the fall of 2019.
We just launched with Kendall County in January. And so we don't --
>> Steven Miller:
Just this past January?
>> Adam Schauer:
Just this past January. We did a quick Kind of introductory pilot program so that we could see how the, because the jail has a lot of very much, processes that they have to follow so we did run a small pilot. And at the end of fall semester there just so we could measure how their processes would work with-
>> Steven Miller:
In Kendall County.
>> Adam Schauer:
At Kendall County.
From Kane County we've been in there since fall of 2019. And normally when we look at adult education across the state, when they measure students what they call level gains when an individual joins an adult education high school equivalency program, they take a test known as the tape test, which is the test for adult basic education. And after X amount of hours of instruction, they take that test again. And then you compare the first test to the second test. And that measures effectively, the level gains. How much knowledge they gained toward completing the high school equivalency.
Normally across the state the average amount of hours of instruction before we see a level gain in a correction setting is about 120 hours of instruction before we start
to see the students gaining levels. During the fall pilot of the Kane County program we began to see level gains after 43 hours of instruction.
>> Steven Miller:
Really.
>> Adam Schauer:
43 hours.
>> Steven Miller:
So is that due to the increase of, you mentioned these tablets, the whole package of information available to people now that are taking advantage of this program?
>> Adam Schauer:
Well, first I would always equate it to the amazing instructors that we have working in these conditions.
>> Steven Miller:
Fair, fair, absolutely.
>> Adam Schauer:
They are truly dedicated individuals that really have a true passion for this work. But yeah, so I mean the hybrid nature of it, resourcing the individuals, but also a big part of it is due to the individuals too.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
This is a completely voluntary program. These individuals sign up at the jail to participate in this program and since it's completely voluntary, they're working hard
>> Steven Miller:
Sure,
>> Adam Schauer:
I mean, you can bring a horse to water but you can't make a drink and so with these individuals, and so we just completed our first round o actual high set testing integer and with the regional office of education and we just got that report back that they have over 70% pass rate of the individual that they tested for this program. So the success of these individuals is it's a lot of hard work on their part.
>> Steven Miller:
So Adam, what kind of folks, what kind of people sign up to teach in this environment?
This is obviously, this is probably a difficult environment to work in.
So what kind of people do this and get the positive results that you were you were just talking about?
>> Adam Schauer:
I don't know if there is a stereotypical person. The one thing that I can say about it is is that, especially when it comes in, into the idea of incarceration in general, there's a lot of misconceptions. There's a lot of we've all watched one too many TV shows because that's not the way the jails are. At Kane county for instance their corrections officer are not armed. Much of it based upon mutual.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
And I guess until you actually get in that environment and begin to work with the detainees, those misconceptions go out the window very quickly. The type of educator that I'm looking for that will be successful in this environment is someone that is adaptable. Someone that does not have those preconceived notions, but more so the skill set that's necessary to be to be a successful corrections educator is multifaceted, the individuals that are instructing in the jail are content experts in all areas. We don't have the opportunity where a student can go to one classroom for language arts instruction and then another classroom for math instruction.
So these instructors are extremely intelligent individuals-
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
That know all of the facets from successful language arts instruction, math, instruction, science, instruction and history, the main four topics of the high school equivalency so that they're able to provide those services at all levels to the individual.
>> Steven Miller:
Interesting.
>> Adam Schauer:
So it's complex. It's challenging, but corrections education gets in your blood.
>> Steven Miller:
I'll just say it's probably quite rewarding.
>> Adam Schauer:
It's very rewarding.
You see the impact very quickly.
And, many corrections educators once they get into it, they don't want to get out.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
They're very much dedicated to providing services to this much needed population.
>> Steven Miller:
So Adam, the obviously the benefit of education for many people is initial or better employment, upon completion of education, but is there any what are the benefits to those who are in this program maybe while they're while they're still incarcerated. Or, what are the kind of quality of life facets that I would imagine this is as with anybody who's pursuing any education once you accomplish it, there's an increase in self confidence. There's all these intangibles.
What do you say about that?
What do you see about that?
>> Adam Schauer:
Well, I mean we could spend hours talking about the amazing benefits of education across the board.
For many of our individuals that are participating in corrections education, when we talk about these types of programs, the term second chance comes up all the time. And the reality of it is, for many of these individuals, it's really their first chance. When we're dealing with individuals that have backgrounds or currently incarcerated, many of them are dealing with addiction issues. They're dealing with, as we mentioned before, this cycle where a family member, a parent had been incarcerated prior.
If you look back their backgrounds would not follow a linear pathway.
We're talking about individuals that have many, many adverse childhood experiences these types of things and so on when they are incarcerated beginning to work, most of them, begin to work on those addiction issues before they're enrolled in any sort of educational program or training. So that barrier is taken away and so now choices that they made when they were teenagers that have gotten them where they're at now. They were not in a place to be able to engage with education at the time when they were.
So now this gives them an opportunity to begin to, for lack of a better word, start righting some of those past mistakes, getting an opportunity to, go back to school while they are serving their debt to society. Because many of them, when they get out, they have many, many responsibilities, employment, so time may not be available to them because of the requirements and the responsibilities that they have when they leave. So this is a productive use of their time.
>> Steven Miller:
Right.
>> Adam Schauer:
One of the things about jail is it's incredibly boring. I myself, I have never been incarcerated, but for most of these individuals they're in their cells for the majority of the day. And so, the opportunities for self-enrichment, for these types of things, are limited. And so, this gives a sense of purpose.
Much of the curriculum that we've implemented in the jails also revolves around some form of cognitive behavioral therapy where our instructors are trying to help them re-frame their focus on life.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
What their reality was prior to incarceration is not necessarily what the reality has to be when they exit. And so, education has that transformative power where it can change a person's complete outlook on life.
>> Steven Miller:
I had a friend of mine who told me a few years ago, he was a former high school English teacher, told me he never really thought of himself as one who teaches English. That's what he did, but his goal was to teach about life through the discipline of English.
And it sounds like a bit of that is the ability to increase confidence and give a sense of purpose, I think was the term you mentioned a minute ago. And just his disability to really alte a person's trajectory in positive ways.
We talk about it a lot here it Waubonsee, and all colleges do. The challenges of the first generation student, the person who's gone to college for the first time in their family. And there are certainly some challenges, that person who has not had that example, I would imagine that is amplified with the people that you are working to educate them in the jails.
>> Adam Schauer:
Very much so. I mean, when we first went into into the jail, we have this paperwork that has to be filled out, student enrollment forms. All of the students do receive a Waubonsee Community College student ID number, they are Waubonsee Community College students. And so, we have this waiver that students have to fill out that allows us to get access to their testing scores once they've completed.
And I had this young lady, she was reading the waiver, and it's a very simple waiver, and she had a question. She's like well, who are you going to share these results with? And I explained to her, I was like it's just so that we can get our scores. And she was like good cuz I don't want my mom finding out. I want it to be a surprise.
>> Steven Miller:
Nice.
>> Adam Schauer:
And that's really what it is. Addiction crosses all socio-economic, all racial barriers. And so, for many of these students, they've gone through treatment. They're now kind of gettin their lives back together.
Now, it's in a prison setting, but now they're kind of realizing that this is an opportunity for them to move forward. And with all of these reentry, the focus nationwide on reentry opportunities is that We have to give people an opportunity to be able to put their background behind them.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
And not have it keep popping up and preventing them from moving on. Because all we're gonna be doing is perpetuating that cycle.
>> Steven Miller:
So this may not make the cut, but I'm just curious.
How do we as a society, this isn't about the students that you're working with, but how do we as a society get past the stigma and allow people to have a second chance, or third or fourth or whatever, or as you mentioned, first chance?
>> Adam Schauer:
As a society, we have this perception that incarceration, our idea is that to incarcerate is to rehabilitate.
>> Steven Miller:
Yeah, yeah.
>> Adam Schauer:
So we have this idea that-
>> Steven Miller:
We have broken people that are now broken and we have to figure out a way to fix them, and they may not ever be fixed kinda thing.
>> Adam Schauer:
Correct, and so, we talk about rehabilitation in the prisons, that once the debt to society paid, when somebody walks out.
But really, all of the systems that we have in place currently prevent them. And so now, nationwide, there's getting more and more focus on individuals with backgrounds because it's just good economic practice, in many aspects-
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
Because we have many industries, especially in Illinois, staying focused on Illinois, many industries, we have a labor shortage.
>> Steven Miller:
Yep.
>> Adam Schauer:
And so, Illinois has begun looking at this and saying hey, we're saying that we're rehabilitating people in prisons, but yet we're putting all these barriers when they get out, which is actually preventing rehabilitation. Because we know that if somebody gets out of jail or prison and they can't find meaningful employment to take care of the responsibilities, where do they go?
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
They go right back to what they were doing before. And in Illinois, to incarcerate somebody for a year on average is right around $35,000 a year. And most of these individuals never made $35,000 a year legally in their lives. And so, Illinois has looked at this and goes, okay, so right now, we have these barriers. We have an individual that has a background, they want to get into the health care field, but they're prohibited because they have this background that's preventing them from getting into it.
So now, Illinois has a healthcare waiver form where individuals, if they've put enough time between their crime and when they apply, they can now get a waiver where they can get certified in the state of Illinois.
Because the need for labor and need for qualified individuals in these areas such as CNA or the healthcare fields, we have to give people an opportunity.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure.
>> Adam Schauer:
And many of the individuals that we're talking about are those individuals, they're not violent criminals.
They're not murderers, they're not rapists. They're individuals that, through many times if you look in their background, had addiction issues. Made very bad decisions
>> Steven Miller:
Had bad examples before them.
>> Adam Schauer:
Exactly.
>> Steven Miller:
A whole host of other things.
>> Adam Schauer:
Correct, and it's not uncommon that you meet an individual in jail and they've got a family member that's in the same jail in a different area. It's really cyclical.
The same thing is true even individuals without backgrounds. An individual that doesn't graduate from high school, their children are, I don't know., x amount of times more likely not to graduate themselves.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure, well, it goes back to the topic of the first generation students. Children of people who didn't go to college are less likely to go to college.
I mean, that's true of many, many things. I mean, people who go in the military more often than not do so because they had a family member who was in the military.
It's just a thing.
And I'm not trying to equate any of these things together. It's just it's just a kind of a function of the human condition.
We do what the example is before us.
And so, that's why these programs are really important.
So the people with backgrounds, there are obviously a lot of obstacles to them upon their release from jail and their reintegration back into society. But people who are in this program and what to continue their education, what is it like for them?
Are they eligible for things like financial aid and the opportunities to advance their schooling?
>> Adam Schauer:
Yes.
As we spoke about before with first generation students, many of our individuals, they have no familial background with higher education. They don't have somebody at home that had a higher education experience that could help guide them. So, we very much make sure that our individuals as they exit the program or if they're released from the jail. Our transition specialist follow up with them to make sure that they're being directed to, you know if they live outside of our district that they're being referred to the community college in their area. But also to give them guidance and how to access that higher education, that training. And we make a focus during the class time that the students have an understanding of the higher education system in Illinois. And that they do have access to financial aid.
Many people believe that because you have a background, you don't have access to financial aid programs, both state and federal and that's completely false.
>> Steven Miller:
Interesting
>> Adam Schauer:
They have the full same access as anybody else to financial aid programs, they have the same access to be able to get into training programs to have access to these high paying careers. And more and more employers are becoming more background friendly, if you will.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security has the ability to work with local employers to help them get bonded. And there's actually tax incentives for employers to be able to employ individuals with backgrounds to help get access to these well paying jobs to give people an opportunity to be able to provide for their families to meet their responsibility.
And so we're really as a state, very much looking at focused on looking at these opportunities and giving people a chance.
>> Steven Miller:
Sure. So Adam, as a taxpayer in this district, in this state, in any given district or state, why should a person care about this program?
>> Adam Schauer:
Well, I'll give you some big numbers.
[LAUGH]
>> Steven Miller:
We have numbers here.
>> Adam Schauer:
Well, in Illinois we have approximately around 47,600 people that are currently incarcerated in the state of Illinois. The State of Illinois spends approximately $1.6 billion, roughly $33,000 per inmate per year to be incarcerated. Now, as I'd mentioned before, just by lowering that recidivism rate that we had mentioned before 89% by 1% would have a humongous cost savings to the state of Illinois. Which is funded by tax payers.
>> Steven Miller:
True.
>> Adam Schauer:
And so these programs, these re-entry programs are very much focused on economics. It's focused on reducing the present population, getting people gainfully employed. A gainfully employed individual pays taxes, takes care of their own responsibilities so they move off of any-
>> Steven Miller:
Taxpayer funded programs.
>> Adam Schauer:
Taxpayer funded programs that would be supporting them because they don't have access to these careers to be able to meet their minimal fiscal responsibilities.
In the end, it comes down to two things.
Our communities are safer because people are now gainfully employed and not recommitting crimes. We're not spending as much on incarceration, which is a huge benefit to the taxpayer. And like I said, and individual that completes their high school equivalency less likely to recidivate. Individuals that have that high school equivalency, move on to higher education or advanced training for careers. They now open up that much more economic power, thus direct benefit to the taxpayer of Kendall in Kane County. And that's really the main focus of it. Safer communities, less incarceration, less cost to the taxpayer.
>> Steven Miller:
So Adam, obviously there's tremendous need for this and a lot of reasons to have this program and lots of opportunities for growth here. But there are certainly some constraints, facilities a lot, there's a lot of things to it.
How do you choose who gets involved in this program? Is something you choose or you mentioned the people who are incarcerated volunteer for this, you have a waitlist, is there more demand than you can supply?
And then what would be something people who are interested in this?
Are there things people can do to be involved and contribute to this?
>> Adam Schauer:
Yes, currently we are limited in capacity A, because of the physical space. This is a grant funded program, so we are limited by the funding link that's available. We're also limited in regards to curriculum that we're implementing, the tablets that have the supplemental instructional material. All of that content is essentially at a sixth grade reading level.
So individuals that are interested in the program at both Kane and Kendall county jail, they will take that test for adult basic education. And so once that test comes in, we're able to assess their reading levels. And it's not that we're trying to exclude anybody, it's just that anybody below that sixth grade reading level, the content is just too advanced. And the time that it takes for bringing their literacy levels up to that, that does not mean that the need's not there. And I know at Kane County that they've begun a volunteer literacy program where volunteers work with individuals that don't quite qualify for the program yet. Where they will work with them to increase their literacy levels so that they can do it but really we're limited in a, the physical space that we're able to instruct. And then also in the ability to fund additional instructors for that program.
>> Steven Miller:
So given the resources available, space funding all these things you're probably had.
You're at capacity now?
>> Adam Schauer:
Well, we're yes.
It's cyclical with the jails, because obviously we can't tell how many people are gonna end up being incarcerated that don't have their high school equivalency.
We are currently operating at Kendall, we're at capacity, they only have the one classroom space.
At Kane County, there are multiple housing units, we're currently working in four of those housing units. There is capacity where we could add more housing units but we're currently constrained due to the grant funding that we have.
>> Steven Miller:
Adam, really appreciate your time.
It's been a great conversation, I have learned much and I'm really grateful for both for the time today. As well as for this program for the work that you do.
For folks who need help, need a hand and society at large, really, really appreciative of that you and your team of people who work on this, I'm grateful.
>> Adam Schauer:
Thank you, Steven.
And, that's as you mentioned it, it really is a big team of individuals that are very much focused on it and really looking to make an impact and helping individuals.
Steven, thanks.
>> Steven Miller:
Thank you.
[MUSIC]
