Corrections Corrections and Prisons

An Effective Reading Program for Incarcerated Youth & Adults

Read Right reading and tutoring program helps struggling readers in juvenile correction facilities, prisons and other institutions. These struggling readers can get the reading help they need. Learning to read well and to comprehend what they are reading will help them have the confidence they need to be successful.

Corrections officials in North Dakota launched their first Read Right project in juvenile corrections facilities. Because the methodology worked so well for teens that had struggled with school most of their lives, a decision was made to expand the program to North Dakota’s adult prisons. Read Right works with all kinds of students because it relies on the plasticity of the brain to remodel the neural circuitry, which in poor readers guides the reading process inappropriately. Even the most challenged students can be quickly transformed from poor readers to successful readers—in a matter of months, not years.

Improves Reading Ability in Correctional Institutions

Read Right’s Reading Intervention Program Successfully Serves Struggling Readers in:

• Juvenile Correction Centers
• Adult Prisons
• Adult Correction Centers
• Correctional Rehabilitation Centers

Benefits for the Student:

• Provides quick, significant, and permanent improvement
• Transforms poor readers to excellent readers
• Builds positive self-esteem
• Restores hope and confidence
• Opens the door to academic success
• Expands potential

Benefits for the Institution:

• Diminishes staff frustration by providing an effective tool to help students succeed
• Generates noticeable results for loved ones, delighting family members
• Helps meet accreditation guidelines
• Reduces recidivism

Effective With:

• Students who were in special education when they were in school
• English language learners

Benefits for Society:

In the article “School and Community Interventions to Prevent Serious and Violent Offending,” authors Catalano et al.* of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) state: “Academic failure is often associated with the beginning of delinquency and the escalation of serious offending—and interventions that improve a child’s academic performance have been shown to reduce delinquency.”

* RF Catalano, R Loeber, KC McKinney (1999): Juvenile Justice Bulletin.