The Saskatchewan adult attendance centre project (1979-84) : a case history

Abstract

The purpose of this case history was to view the development of the Saskatchewan Adult Attendance Centre Project through the perspective of currently accepted, but selected, adult education philosophy, principles, and techniques. The Project was a mandatory adult education component of Probation Services, a program for adult offenders operated by Saskatchewan Corrections. The story of the evolution from 1979 to 1984 of the two Adult Attendance Centres of the Project, based in the cities of Regina and Saskatoon, was presented in the context of an historical overview of the education of adults in the Corrections systems of Britain, the United States, and Canada. The Attendance Centres were not set up as adult education institutions. They were intended to be cost effective alternatives to incarceration. The study maintained that sentencing that included attendance at the Centres was more cost effective for the provincial government than incarceration or traditional probation. It argued that the kind of education presented to adult probationers in the Centre programs often strayed from currently accepted adult education philosophy, principles, and techniques. None the less, significant potential existed in the Centres for the creation of more meaningful adult education opportunities for persons on probation.