Resource Community Higher Education in Prison

The Landscape Survey contained 93 questions designed to collect both descriptive and openended responses from participants about their college-in-prison programs during the 2018/2019

The Understanding the Landscape of Higher Education Prison Survey (Landscape Survey) was
designed as a confidential follow-up to the 2020 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison
Programs (2020 Annual Survey), distributed by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison.
The Landscape Survey contained 93 questions designed to collect both descriptive and open-ended responses from participants about their college-in-prison programs during the 2018/2019
academic year

The Understanding the Landscape of Higher Education Prison Survey (Landscape Survey) was
designed as a confidential follow-up to the 2020 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison
Programs (2020 Annual Survey), distributed by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison.
The Landscape Survey contained 93 questions designed to collect both descriptive and open-ended responses from participants about their college-in-prison programs during the 2018/2019
academic year

The Understanding the Landscape of Higher Education Prison Survey (Landscape Survey) was
designed as a confidential follow-up to the 2020 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison
Programs (2020 Annual Survey), distributed by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison.
The Landscape Survey contained 93 questions designed to collect both descriptive and open-ended responses from participants about their college-in-prison programs during the 2018/2019
academic year

Equity and Excellence in Practice: A Guide for Higher Education in Prison provides a clear and specific summary of what the authors believe are the most essential components of high quality in-prison higher education programs that uphold a commitment to equity, excellence and access.

In December 2017, Lumina Foundation provided support to the Prison University Project (PUP) and the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison (the Alliance) to reflect upon and document the key characteristics of high-quality prison higher education programs, and to inform other stakeholders in the field, including new and experienced practitioners seeking to achieve equity and excellence in their work, policy leaders, philanthropy, and others. The main practical goal of this report is to provide a summary of what we (the authors) believe are the most essential components of a high quality in-prison higher education program.

Data report: In this brief report, we provide a descriptive overview of the
landscape of higher education in prison during the 2018-2019
academic year. Data for this report are drawn from two sources:
responses to the 2020 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison
Programs (n = 131) and data compiled by the Research Collaborative
on Higher Education in Prison for known programs that did not
complete the Annual Survey (n = 169).

Data report: In this report, we provide a descriptive overview of the landscape of higher education in prison during the 2019-2020 academic year, prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (July 1, 2019 – March 1, 2020). To our knowledge, the data we present here is the best available information about the state of higher education in prison programming prior to the disruptive effect of the pandemic. Data for this report are drawn from responses to the 2021 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison Programs (n = 168), which were compiled with known program information from the National Directory of Higher Education in Prison Programs (n = 204).

Data report: In this report, we provide a descriptive overview of the landscape of higher education in prison during the 2020-2021 academic year (July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021), based on the responses of known higher education in prison program staff (N=406) to the 2022 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison Programs. To our knowledge, the data we present here is the best available information about the state of higher education in prison programming for the 2020-2021 academic year. Data for this report are drawn from responses to the 2022 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison Programs (n=172), which were compiled with existing program data in the National Directory of Higher Education in Prison Programs (n=234). The 2022 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison Programs was launched in May 2022 and closed in August 2022. The Annual Survey was distributed to all known higher education in prison programs, as well as made publicly available on multiple platforms.

This brief report outlines the potential impacts of Pell restoration on the field of higher education in prison. Using original qualitative data from interviews with 12 higher education in prison programs and quantitative data from a national survey of college programs in prison, our analysis focuses on persistent funding challenges that the Pell grant alone cannot address. Specifically, we highlight three distinct and pressing challenges for the field of higher education in light of Pell restoration, and related to: 1. access to funding other than FAFSA, including college/university specific scholarships; 2. administrative sustainability and funding, and key stakeholder alignment on program vision and offerings, and 3. access to student support services. Ultimately, we argue that the effects of Pell reinstatement on access to higher education will depend on whether it is accompanied by investments in a broader range of institutional infrastructures and resources. The report
concludes with recommendations to adequately and responsibly support the growth and quality of higher education in prison programs.

This report offers information about the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on higher education in prison programs. The data used for this report come from two sources: 1) the 2020 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison Programs, and 2) the Understanding the Landscape of Higher Education in Prison Programs Survey. These findings are part of an ongoing time-series
data collection process that will continue through semi-annual surveys distributed to higher education in prison programs through the United States.

The Understanding the Landscape of Higher Education Prison Survey (Landscape Survey) was
designed as a confidential follow-up to the 2020 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison
Programs (2020 Annual Survey), distributed by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison.
The Landscape Survey contained 93 questions designed to collect both descriptive and open-ended responses from participants about their college-in-prison programs during the 2018/2019
academic year

designed as a confidential follow-up to the 2020 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison

Student handbook: Blackstone Career Institute is committed to providing quality, relevant and affordable distance education programs that focus on the knowledge and skills needed for entry-level careers, professional development or personal goals. Instruction is remote, correspondence.

Student handbook: The mission of the North Carolina Field Minister Program is to educate and equip men of faith to serve as cultural assets within the incarcerated population of North Carolina. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Student handbook: The mission of Feather River College's Incarcerated Student Program is to offer a high quality transferable Associate Degree in Liberal Arts to a diverse incarcerated student population. Our mission is to also offer life skills courses that culminate in an Entrepreneurial Business Certificate. Our program will enhance personal development and rehabilitation through an effective learning process that helps students to attain their goals, thereby increasing their self-worth, confidence, and employment opportunities. The program will encourage students' communication and critical thinking skills, and lifelong learning habits. In addition, the ISP seeks to broaden societal understanding of incarcerated student populations. Instruction is remote, correspondence.

CIU Prison Initiative Student Handbook

Volunteer handbook: The Prison Education Program at Saint Louis University is a Jesuit-inspired initiative that provides access to high-quality liberal arts education for people who are incarcerated and prison staff.

Volunteer handbook: This program serves adult women, with no college credit or non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Volunteer handbook: The Florida Prison Education Project provides educational opportunities to incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated people in Florida, researches the societal benefits of prison education and integrates the study of justice into the University of Central Florida curriculum. This program serves adult men, with non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Staff handbook: Tennessee Higher Education Initiative disrupts systems of harm, creates opportunities for autonomy and success through education, support, and advocacy with and for justice impacted individuals. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Strategic plan: The Petey Greene Program supplements education in jails, prisons, detention centers, and reentry programs by providing free, high-quality tutoring and related programming to support the academic achievement of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. The Petey Greene Program also educates its volunteers--college students and community members--about the injustice manifest in our carceral system, and we strive to inspire our alumni--both students and tutors--to become advocates and take on leadership roles that reimagine the criminal legal system. This program serves juvenile men, with non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Strategic plan: The Self-Paced Program, offered in both paper and web-based formats, is specifically designed to make learning as flexible as possible. A wide variety of courses is available and you can take up to six months to complete each course. Students can complete degrees at the associate and bachelor's levels. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Student evaluation form: As a champion of institutional, structural, and personal transformation, the Institute opens doors and eliminates barriers to success for people who have been involved in the criminal legal system. We create access to higher education and pathways to satisfying careers. We advocate for the right to housing, employment, healthcare, and other human rights too often denied people with criminal convictions. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Student handbook: The Chillon Project at Life University provides credit-bearing classes and degrees to people in prison and formerly incarcerated people in Georgia; creates learning communities grounded in principles of compassion and conflict transformation; and shares resources and builds skills that enable people to thrive, benefit others, and build the world they wish to see, no matter where they are. This program serves adult women, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face.

Student handbook: The Self-Paced Program, offered in both paper and web-based formats, is specifically designed to make learning as flexible as possible. A wide variety of courses is available and you can take up to six months to complete each course. Students can complete degrees at the associate and bachelor's levels. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Student handbook: STEP-UP's mission is to provide academic, logistical, and limited financial support for students who have been formerly incarcerated and/or have suffered from alcohol or drug addiction. This program serves adult men and women, with college credit and non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face.

Student handbook: As a champion of institutional, structural, and personal transformation, the Institute opens doors and eliminates barriers to success for people who have been involved in the criminal legal system. We create access to higher education and pathways to satisfying careers. We advocate for the right to housing, employment, healthcare, and other human rights too often denied people with criminal convictions. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Program evaluation: STEP-UP's mission is to provide academic, logistical, and limited financial support for students who have been formerly incarcerated and/or have suffered from alcohol or drug addiction. This program serves adult men and women, with college credit and non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face.

Program evaluation: Freedom Prep is a college transition program for court-involved youth age 16-24. The goal is to provide a supported, structured on-ramp to college for currently and formerly incarcerated and court-involved young people. In addition to the opportunity to earn up to six college credits through a free college classes, the students receive college counseling and advising through CUNY programs such as the Foster Care Initiative, the John Jay Institute for Justice and Opportunity, College Now, and CUNY Start. Freedom Prep gives students who have experienced multiple barriers to getting an education the opportunity to take a college class and eventually go to college. This program serves juvenile men, with college credit offerings.

Reentry guide: Tennessee Higher Education Initiative disrupts systems of harm, creates opportunities for autonomy and success through education, support, and advocacy with and for justice impacted individuals. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Reentry guide: Provide collaborative learning opportunities between Sinclair Community College and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) that facilitates the holistic treatment approach to restoring and reintegrating offenders back into society successfully by providing viable educational options that will enhance the opportunities for increased employability thus decreasing recidivism through advanced job training.
This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Reentry guide: The mission of the Second Chance Program at Wor-Wic Community College is to increase access to post-secondary education for individuals incarcerated at Eastern Correctional Institution in order to reduced recidivism and to encourage positive educational, professional, financial, and personal outcomes post-release. This program serves adult men, with no college credit or non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face.

Reentry guide: This program serves adult women, with no college credit or non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

FASFA info: As a champion of institutional, structural, and personal transformation, the Institute opens doors and eliminates barriers to success for people who have been involved in the criminal legal system. We create access to higher education and pathways to satisfying careers. We advocate for the right to housing, employment, healthcare, and other human rights too often denied people with criminal convictions. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

MOU: The Chillon Project at Life University provides credit-bearing classes and degrees to people in prison and formerly incarcerated people in Georgia; creates learning communities grounded in principles of compassion and conflict transformation; and shares resources and builds skills that enable people to thrive, benefit others, and build the world they wish to see, no matter where they are. This program serves adult women, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face.

MOU: Tennessee Higher Education Initiative disrupts systems of harm, creates opportunities for autonomy and success through education, support, and advocacy with and for justice impacted individuals. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

MOU: Establish higher education in prison models to promote the reintegration of incarcerated persons (men and women) into society by fostering their intellectual curiosity, their capacity for critical thinking, constant and ongoing learning, effective communication skills, an appreciation for and cultivation of ethical and aesthetic values; and provide an education of excellence which offers students a unified vision of knowledge that brings general education and specialization into harmony; foster in students a capacity for independent study and research. This program serves adult women, with college credit offerings.

MOU: The mission of the North Carolina Field Minister Program is to educate and equip men of faith to serve as cultural assets within the incarcerated population of North Carolina. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

MOU: Our purpose is to inspire and educate our students to become autonomous thinkers, discerning moral agents and active citizens of a democratic society. This program serves adult men, with no college credit or non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face.

MOU: SVCC's Campus Within Walls program provides second chances through higher education to incarcerated students. Through college education, Campus Within Walls provides our students with the tools they need to successfully re-enter society and become productive citizens.
This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings.

Org chart: Tennessee Higher Education Initiative disrupts systems of harm, creates opportunities for autonomy and success through education, support, and advocacy with and for justice impacted individuals. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Org chart: North Park University offers a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry/Restorative Arts through the School of Restorative Arts (SRA) to incarcerated and free persons. The degree is for servant leaders interested in seminary-level theological training who desire to do restorative justice ministry in contexts that are susceptible to conflict or violence. Graduates will demonstrate the ability to be agents of restoration in their communities. Participants are expected to be engaged community members at the time of application and throughout the program. The SRA welcomes people of all faiths and backgrounds. This program serves adult men, with college credit and non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face.

Instructor handbook: The Prison Education Program at Saint Louis University is a Jesuit-inspired initiative that provides access to high-quality liberal arts education for people who are incarcerated and prison staff.

Teaching artist handbook: RTA uses the transformative power of the arts to help people in prison develop skills to unlock their potential and succeed in the larger community. This program serves adult women, with no college credit or non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Faculty handbook: As a champion of institutional, structural, and personal transformation, the Institute opens doors and eliminates barriers to success for people who have been involved in the criminal legal system. We create access to higher education and pathways to satisfying careers. We advocate for the right to housing, employment, healthcare, and other human rights too often denied people with criminal convictions. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Instructor handbook: The mission of the North Carolina Field Minister Program is to educate and equip men of faith to serve as cultural assets within the incarcerated population of North Carolina. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Faculty handbook: The Florida Prison Education Project provides educational opportunities to incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated people in Florida, researches the societal benefits of prison education and integrates the study of justice into the University of Central Florida curriculum. This program serves adult men, with non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.

Faculty manual: The mission of Feather River College's Incarcerated Student Program is to offer a high quality transferable Associate Degree in Liberal Arts to a diverse incarcerated student population. Our mission is to also offer life skills courses that culminate in an Entrepreneurial Business Certificate. Our program will enhance personal development and rehabilitation through an effective learning process that helps students to attain their goals, thereby increasing their self-worth, confidence, and employment opportunities. The program will encourage students' communication and critical thinking skills, and lifelong learning habits. In addition, the ISP seeks to broaden societal understanding of incarcerated student populations.
Instruction is remote, correspondence.

FASFA info: Tennessee Higher Education Initiative disrupts systems of harm, creates opportunities for autonomy and success through education, support, and advocacy with and for justice impacted individuals. This program serves adult men, with college credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face and remote.