Johnny Appleseed | James A. White, Jr. | TEDxIronwoodStatePrison

"Education is addictive," claims James White Jr. From behind bars, he describes the amazing effect college classes have had at Ironwood State Prison in California and demonstrates through statistics how states can save money and create safer communities.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

This gentleman was the inmate founder
of the Palo Verde College program,

and he is also a highly
decorated Vietnam veteran.

Please welcome my good friend,
James A. White, Jr.

(Applause) (Cheers)

Good afternoon.

I'd like you to take a few minutes
and think about the future:

not about your future or your communities'
but our global community's future.

Now, my model today -
I'm going to use California -

but really it's prevalent globally.

And the question is this:

Why is money,

far too much money in many cases,

being spent on the temporary
housing of people,

and then at some arbitrary time,
they're released back into our community

to continue this same lifestyle,

which I might add is what got them
incarcerated in the first place?

Now, in the year 2000, the California
Department of Corrections

had 150,000+ inmates at a cost
of almost 40,000 dollars a year,

and a recidivism rate of over 70%.

Now, if you look,

if we release 10,000 inmates
and 7,000 come back,

and now, this year, the cost
is 47,000 dollars a year,

that's 325 million plus being spent

on returning consumers
to the correctional system.

Now, to me, those numbers
are ultraconservative,

and I am a conservative.

And the reason is this:

Nobody comes back for a year.

They come back for three, five, ten,

25 to life for three strikers.

Now, McGill University
in Montreal, Canada,

and then subsequently,
the U.S. Department of Justice,

did some studies,

and what those studies pointed out was

that the education of a prisoner,
while incarcerated,

had a direct bearing on their propensity

of returning to a life
of crime when released.

And therefore they became
returning consumers

of the correctional system.

Now, what is the cost of an education?

Higher education's expensive.

In the year 2000, in California,

an AA degree cost about 5,700 dollars.

But what if ...

What if instead of one
textbook for one student,

we used one textbook
for four or five students?

And what if all their tutors were
their peers who had college education?

And what if all the administrative duties
were done by their peers?

What if we implement all these "what ifs"?

Well, we can get the price down
to around 2,500 dollars.

And in the year 2000, the California
Department of Corrections

and Palo Verde College started a project
called the Ironwood Project.

They took 53 inmates and moved them
over to 53 students.

Now, after several semesters, everybody
was surprised at the results.

So they raised, lifted, pushed
people into more enrollments,

and we got up to 650 at one time.

Now, what materialized
out of this was shocking.

For one, Palo Verde started offering
alcohol drugs study treatment courses,

a mouthful there.

And many of their students
had abuse problems,

so they enrolled to take the courses
to better themselves.

But after taking ten or 12 courses,
they found out they were eligible

to take a state licensing exam,

and they could become certified
alcohol drug treatment specialists.

So now, they weren't only helping
themselves or their peers here,

but when they returned to our community,
they're going to be helping our community.

Now, another thing happened.

Many of our students were released.

They went home.

And guess what happened?

They continued their education.

See, I'm old; education's addictive.

You get a little bit, you want more.

(Laughter)

So, we have students
that either have received

or are working on degrees,
bachelor's degrees,

in subjects like biology,
business administration,

civil engineering,

physics.

We even had one student get an MBA.

Now, the question is:
is this a good program?

Is it cost-effective?

The California Department of Corrections
deals with money, that's what it's about.

So, is it cost-effective?

Here are the results after
they compiled all the data.

Of the first 53 students that enrolled,

52 graduated, one third with honors.

We have had numerous, numerous
summa cum laude graduates.

Sitting in this room today
are students with a 4.0 GPA.

(Applause)

We've had 1,288 graduates,

and in six weeks, we've got 103 more.

(Applause)

Now, if you look at the Department
of Justice studies, 20% should return.

So, how many have returned?

As of July 2013

1.526% have returned to prison.

(Applause) (Cheers)

Now, you've got to understand, all this
was from one seed, one little idea.

Let's try it, one seed.

I'm going to tell you that all of these
students are very thankful.

They're very thankful for the opportunity,

not only to get an education beyond their
thoughts that they ever would have,

but because they're allowed to change
their lives with a little bit of help

and become better citizens.

Now, what does all this mean to you?

95% of those incarcerated in California

are going to return to your communities,

actually they're our communities.

6.6% of all Californians

have either been in or are in prison,

on parole, or on probation.

6.6%, that's a mighty small number.

It's only one in 15.

It's an amazing number.

So, what has my talk been about today?

Well, it's easy.

It's about planting seeds,
going around planting seeds.

So,

everybody here, I'm old.

Everybody here knows this is an apple.

And everybody in this room,
every one of you,

can count the seeds in an apple.

But none of you,

not in this room, not today,

none of you when you
go back to your community,

nobody in the global community,

can count the apples in this seed

So, what I want you to think

is that there was a seed planted
here in the desert.

And with a little bit of water,
a little bit of nurturing,

it grew into a small, flourishing orchard.

But, we are in a desert in California;
there's a drought going on.

So, we need a little bit more water.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

We need a little bit more nourishing,

and maybe, we can have
a Bachelor's degree program here.

(Cheers) (Applause)

So, what I want all of you to do for me,

the old man on this stage,

is tomorrow,

tomorrow when you leave your home

go out and plant a seed.

Plant a seed

and imagine the infinite possibilities.

Thank you.