Scholarships to distance-learning courses at universities are being offered to prisoners by the Open Society Foundation and the Civil Society in the Penal System Foundation as part of an effort to help rehabilitate the incarcerated. Organizers of the program hope participants will acquire the skills necessary to make a positive contribution to society after their release

Education and encouragement are keys to rehabilitating prisoners, according to the CEO of an organization that has been working to provide scholarships to university distance-learning programs for the currently incarcerated.

“What people fail to realize is that if prisoners are not educated while in custody, nothing will change when they are released; they will continue to pose threats to society,” Zafer Kıraç, the CEO of the Civil Society in the Penal System Foundation, or CISST, said in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

The organization has been working with the Open Society Foundation for the past two years to provide scholarships for detained citizens.

According to Kıraç, there is a preconceived notion within Turkish society that prisoners should be made to suffer indefinitely by being deprived of all civil rights and detained in the worst conditions.

“Going to prison is the punishment, being deprived of one’s freedom. Whether they are given bad food or poor bedding, or whether they have access to a swimming pool, does not change anything,” Kıraç told the Daily News.

What is important, he said, is that prisoners be allowed to develop their education and skills during their sentences so they can make a positive contribution to society when they are released. To this end, CISST has been working closely with the Open Society Foundation since 2008 to provide scholarships that allow prisoners to take distance-learning courses from some universities while they are incarcerated.

During the 2008-2009 academic year, the Open Society Foundation donated $5,000 to the scholarships project, enabling six prisoners to enroll in university courses. An addition $7,000 donated in 2009-2010 has allowed 20 more detainees to take college-level classes. The scholarships cover the costs of registration and reading materials. Additional funds for the scholarships come from businesspeople and companies in the districts where the prisons are located. According to Kıraç, the two foundations are currently lobbying the Higher Education Board, or YÖK, to abolish educational fees entirely for prisoners who want to enroll in university courses.

“We are raising money to educate these prisoners, but ultimately we are paying the government, which should not be the case,” Kıraç said. “The government should support and encourage prisoners to learn so they are released as changed citizens who can actively contribute to society.”

According to the CISST CEO, the foundation receives many letters from prisoners who have been the beneficiaries of scholarships and training, highlighting the positive impact the program has had on their personal development.

A prisoner with the initials H.G., for example, was given a scholarship to the Information Technology Department at Anadolu University’s distance-learning faculty. He wrote to the foundation to say the course he was enrolled in made him aware of talents and abilities he never knew he had.

“I graduated from the department with high honors. I never knew I had the ability to accomplish such a thing,” H.G wrote in a letter addressed to Kıraç. “This experience has shown me that with hard work and persistence, I have great potential.” Kıraç added that general training in the arts also has positive impacts on prisoners and encourages them to pursue hidden talents.

“A prisoner in Bandırma who had never put a paintbrush to paper became an artist during the course of his sentence. Even though he works from the prison, his artwork is exhibited in the local district,” Kıraç said. In a letter to Kıraç, the CEO said, the prisoner wrote that his hands, once covered in blood, were now covered in paint. “We have to focus on the positive changes education can have on prisoners. While we cannot dismiss the fact that many prisoners have committed brutal crimes, we should not make this our focus,” Kıraç said. “We have to look forward and see how we can best help them to change.”

Ceylan Yeğinsu March 9, 2010 /Hürriyet Daily News