About 70 percent of people with criminal records did not complete high school, and according to at least one study, about half are functionally illiterate.26 Many are tracked for prison at early ages, labeled as criminals in their teen years, and then shuttled from their decrepit, underfunded inner-city schools to brand-new, high-tech prisons. The communities and schools from which they come fail to prepare them for the workforce, and once they have been labeled criminals, their job prospects are forever bleak.
