Correctional Educational Program

The Correctional Education Program was established through UNC Asheville’s Division of Continuing Education and Distance Learning in 1998, after the director at that time, Elaine Fox, was contacted by UNC Chapel Hill about providing the program in the Western North Carolina region. One of about eight higher education institutions in the state to offer Correctional Education Program courses, UNC Asheville sends faculty members to five facilities—Avery-Mitchell and Mountain View correctional institutions in Spruce Pine, Foothills and Western correctional centers in Morganton, and Craggy Correctional Institute in Asheville. The federally funded program allows inmates to earn college credits and begin building a transcript, and to date 2056 inmates have taken classes. Current regulations require that students must have a high school diploma or a minimum GED score, a 10th-grade reading level, and they must not have committed such crimes as murder or rape.  Additionally, a stipulation requires that they be approaching their release date with the amount of time dependent on the funding source for the class.  (Read More)

Today, Susan Allman, Director of Distance Education, works with correctional facilities on delivery of the courses. She conducts an orientation for faculty and initially accompanies them to the facility. Faculty arrive for classes with books, handouts and syllabuses to teach subjects such as sociology, psychology, math, Spanish, art, drama, literature and language. Current courses include Career and Life Planning, Spanish, and Public Speaking as well as six others. Upon successful completion, inmates receive a certificate showing the course name, when they took it, and credit earned. 

The program’s goal is to aid inmates in transforming their lives and rebuilding their self-esteem. “We succeed in reaching many students, although I would consider it a success if we reached one,” says Volker Frank, chair of the Sociology Department, who has taught in the program since its inception. “We reach them and connect with them, and they realize society has not given up on them. They need to know that not everyone has written them off. I am proud UNC Asheville is giving them a chance to move on with their lives.”