No one has ever claimed they are. But mandatory minimums tend to keep predators off our streets and protect the law abiding.
This is the flaw in that claim:
Inmates who participate in correctional education programs had a 43 percent lower chance of recidivating than those who did not — a reduction in the risk of recidivating of 13 percentage points.
So how do we know how many participated from the prison population and how many chose not to?
This statement indicated that they are admitting there is not enough research to prove the claims:
Research needs to get inside the "black box" of what does and does not work in correctional education programs to help policymakers make programmatic tradeoffs in a resource-constrained environment.
NOW, let me be clear; I am not arguing against these resources. My argument is that, for the most part, they are meaningless unless we deal with the true causes of criminality. Those were listed above.