Legal Issues

Thesis Statement
Prisoners should be entitled to free education while they are staying in prison.

Right of Education
Every person has a right to get education if heshe wants. A prisoner is not only confined to a limited space in a jail, but he is also confined to the options he has. While the person is in prison, he gets more ignorant and indifferent. The objective of sending criminals to prison should be to get him right instead of giving a punishment. When the prisoner completes his stay in jail and gets out, he should be a person with a better civic sense. Without providing any avenue of change, imprisonment of prisoners is not a sensible idea (United Nations, 2009). Without any positive influence on the prisoners, like education, the government will create frustrated and angry individuals who will not be of any good to the society once they leave the prison.

The prisoners are given the basic rights of humans like food, health care and security is a prison except for education. Education is the fundamental element of life which enlightens an individual and keeps him away from crimes. All the educated societies of the world get involved in crimes at a very low rate than those which are illiterate and ignorant. While the individuals stay in jail, they become more backwards in life, remain ill-informed and ill-advised. These individuals have lost all their hopes and relationships with most of the friends and family. Only education can make them better individuals for the society. One these individuals leave the jail, they can do more good to the society than harm if they are educated.

Why Educate the Prisoners for Free
The population in jails is increasing day by day in majority of countries. Most of these prisoners are youngsters and middle aged individuals. When these people, especially the youngsters, are kept in jails for years, their personality is shattered. They get influenced by others around them and see their future as dark and gloomy. Educating the prisoners will allow them to get in the process of self-correction. Education will not only keep the prisoners busy but also give them a better reason to live.
Most of the prisoners in developing countries are those who are not educated or are completely illiterate. One of the causes of crimes is illiteracy. Once these individuals in jails are educated, they can be expected to not again get involved in crimes. If these individuals are educated in jails, once they get out they will be able to get employment if they are able to get some degree or diploma.

It is not easy for a criminal to leave his crime life even after many years of imprisonment if he is sentenced. Usually the criminals, once they get out of the jail, pursue their criminal life and get back to the crimes they used to do. The reason for this is that their personality stays the same, most of the times even gets worse, and they stand at the same point as before when they leave the jail. The lives of these criminals need to be changed in prisons so that their personality can be changed and their social responsibility can be awakened.

These prisoners mostly are poor and unemployed. Therefore they cannot pay for education of higher levels as they are not even able to work in prisons. Their education needs to be funded by the public in order to turn a criminal into a better and responsible person.