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Dre, NYT comment, March 7, 2018
I've worked part-time as an adjunct in prison college ed programs at 3 different max security prisons on both coasts. I have had many great students & generally support such programs, but I also like facts & context, and some key ones are missing from the article & comments. 
Yes, academics & reformers are fond of quoting statistics like: those who take college courses have recidivism rates about 40% lower than those who don't.
To translate: on average, about 75% of felons released from state prisons return within 5 years. When you reduce that by 40%, that means roughly 45% that took college classes still return. Progress certainly, but there's always more to the story.
In a typical prison, those that actually want to take college classes and have at least a GED make up about 10-20% of the total prison population.
So yes, among those internally motivated to participate and hopefully get a 2 or even 4 year degree, recidivism is lowered by ~ 40% mentioned, and chances for a decent life outside rise significantly.
But one point seldom emphasized is that people change only when they want to, it doesn't matter what you or I want for them, or what programs you offer. They change themselves or they don't, and in my experience on the order of 80% don't want to change.
Lastly, it costs about $100k for 4 years of tuition, books, room & board at a state university. If your law abiding child has to pay her way, why not a repayment plan for inmates. Or perhaps free tuition for all.

Details, California, NYT comment, March 8, 2018
I want to believe you. I really do. 

But - for many, you are mixing cause and effect. Not everyone has the same abilities, not everyone has the same interests - for some sitting still in a classroom is torture. This is why mainstreaming lower performing kids into regular classes all too often hurts BOTH sets of students, by making the lower performing students think less of themselves while distracting the teacher.

Prisons should have education available and encouraged, absolutely. Safe, and non-disruptive ways to allow participation in college is great. I'm a big fan of redemption, rehabilitation, not punishment. And schools in poorer areas need a LOT more investment, they need to be a safe haven where disruptive students, and violent students are kept from the others and still educated. But it's not a panacea, it's not the cause of all crime.

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"I don’t think I’ve actually considered something as naive as this op-ed since Jane Fonda, straddling a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun in 1972."

Before one waxes entranced by the state of German prisons relative to our own, one first should compare the average IQs, levels of education attained, economic class from which the two cohorts of prisoners sprang, and the nature of the crimes they committed.
We seem to be depopulating our most economically disadvantaged communities across America, filling our prisons in part with drug offenders but also with the extremely violent that such environments grow; and a very large percentage of our prisoners are mentally ill, as well. The most we can ask of prison guards is not to abuse them as they risk their lives seeking to control such a desperate and violent population of prisoners.
If we were to focus on this matter for a generation, we might JUST get to the point where we had developed sufficient alternative programs to deal with non-violent drug offenders and other offenders outside of a prison context; but until we moderate the poverty in our poorest communities and dramatically improve the education available there, the notion of petunias, private phones and cons dicing carrots with chefs knives is just too alien to feature.

NYT comment August 7, 2015

Learning
notes
Prisoners can take courses that will prepare them for careers as caterers, chefs and waiters.

Books
Drawing classes
Wood workshops
Music
There's also a recording studio with a professional mixing board. In-house music teachers – who refer to the inmates as 'pupils,' never 'prisoners' – works with their charges on piano, guitar, bongos and more. Three members of Halden's security –guard chorus recently competed on Norway's version of American Idol. They hope to produce the prison's first musical – starring inmates – later this year. Time Magazine.

Spirituality
Free time
Security guards organize activities from 8am to 8pm. It's a chance for inmates to pick up a new hobby, but it's also a part of the prison's dynamic security strategy: occupied prisoners are less likely to lash out at guards and one another. Inmates can shoot hoops on this basketball courts, which absorbs falls on impact, and make use of a rock-climbing wall, jogging trails and a soccer field." Time Magazine.

Yoga in prisons
“We were there to celebrate the launch of Freeing the Spirit through Meditation an Yoga, a book recently published by the Prison Phoenix Trust. This remarkable charity brings meditation and yoga to people in prison, claiming that the cell nee not only be a place of incarceration and restriction: it can be a place where the spirit can find freedom, even joy….
The Trust has a small office in Oxford, which is staffed by two full-time and five part-time workers, as well as 20 volunteers. There are also, spread across the country, some 90 yoga teachers who go to the prisons to teach weekly classes in yoga and meditation….” www.prisonphoenixtrust.org