The U.S. Department of Labor will be granting $52 million to support projects that advance pre-release job training and apprenticeship programs for incarcerated individuals.
These Pathway Home grants will be awarded to projects that provide incarcerated individuals with legal assistance, counseling, job search strategies and other foundational skills prior to release. These grants—ranging from $1 million to $4 million to each recipient—demonstrate the value of initiatives like Education in Action that close the gaps between higher education in prison and employment opportunities.…
With a submission deadline of May 1, 2024, The Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities is soliciting manuscripts for their journal on the role of higher education in prison and returning citizens on campuses and communities. The purpose of this issue's theme is to gain insight into how higher education institutions address prison education, transition, and reentry for incarcerated students.
The topic suggestions for content are fairly broad, but all must include evidence-based theories or practice with supportive data.
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When you have a moment, check out the Community Events page at the Alliance! There are three really interesting events going on THIS WEEK! https://www.higheredinprison.org/community-events
Written by Open Campus staff reporter Charlotte West, this biweekly newsletter from Open Campus is about the future of postsecondary education in prisons. This online archive contains PDF versions of previous issues of the newsletter.
This news article from Open Campus examines how disabled students in prison have not only been denied access to extra supports, like extended testing time or having text read aloud to them, but also didn’t even know they might qualify.
In this radio segment from NPR and WBUR's Here & Now, Deepa Fernandes speaks with Jennifer Lackey, the founding director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program. This segment runs approximately 8 minutes and 50 seconds.
This article from Reuters announces the graduation of the first class of incarcerated students from Northwestern University's Prison Education Program on November 15, 2023.
"Twenty years ago, some of these guys were in rival gangs, and here they are swapping poetry with each other and giving critical engagements on sociology assignments," said Professor Jennifer Lackey, the program's founding director. "The love and growth that we see in the community is really unlike anything I've experienced at the on-campus commencements."
This article from Illinois Public Media covers the passage of the Higher Education in Prison Act in the Illinois legislature.
The state will now provide annual public data on enrollment, demographics, and waitlists for higher education programs in Illinois prisons.
This news article from Open Campus discusses the impact of prison closures on incarcerated students.
As California closes three more prisons and downsizes six others, some prisoners aren’t ready to go. They are worried about the future of their education. California Governor Gavin Newsom is closing and downsizing prisons across the state, putting the future of over a thousand incarcerated students at risk. College administrators say they have few resources to help.
This news article from Open Campus takes us inside a prison education program in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
