Aloha! I serve as chancellor at Windward Community College and founded our Puʻuhonua (Places of Sanctuary) Program in 2017, which serves three carceral insitutions in Hawaiʻi.
Iʻm excited to get to meet others engaged in this work!
Hi! My name is Basia, and I am the workforce development director for P2P (From Prison Cells to PhD) and senior faculty specialist at the University of Maryland working on an AgTech project that brings leading researchers together with farmers to help improve decision-making processes through the use of satellite data from space.
I am a proud mother of two beautiful young ladies and three sweet pups in St. Louis, Missouri. I am first generation American and speak Polish fluently. I love to travel, read, cook, and explore when time allows. I am excited to be a part of this…
This article from Jobs for the Future was written by Shaun Libby, who was formerly incarcerated and was enrolled in the Maine State Prison college program. The author states that "investing in prison education and work opportunities inspires hope, prepares residents for reentry, and reduces recidivism while also fostering positive improvements in prison culture."
This resource follows Alexa Garza’s journey through the walls of prison education and the maze of reintegration struggles, as she shares insights on breaking barriers and advocating for second chances.
This press release details the U.S. Department of Education's announcement of a new path for borrowers who are incarcerated to exit default through consolidation, providing them access to improved credit and to better repayment options than ever before. Borrowers who had student loans before becoming incarcerated can now consolidate their loans to get out of default, providing them with certain types of loans—including Perkins Loans and commercially held Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFEL) loans—to gain access to income-driven repayment (IDR) plans like the Saving on a Valuable…
This news article from the Washington Post explores how thousands of minors like Yusef Qualls-El, who is highlighted in the article, received sentences of life without parole and entered prison at an age when their peers were going to college or starting their careers. But inside, education is often reserved for those who will soon return to society. As a result, those who were seen as the least likely to get out had the fewest opportunities. The article showcases Yusef Qualls-El's story and his next steps.
This article discusses results published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Massachusetts Lowell of a two-year study of Brave Behind Bars, MIT's web design program for incarcerated students. The qualitative study evaluated the effects of teaching HTML and JavaScript to incarcerated students, highlighting a notable increase in their self-confidence and digital competencies—key factors in reducing recidivism, or the rate at which people who are released return to prison.
Twenty women at Denver Women's Correctional Facility will be part of a new bachelor's degree program. Students in the program, run by Adams State University, will be able to choose between a sociology or business track. This article describes the program and the reactions of the community.
Accessing high-speed internet in correctional settings can serve as a conduit for incarcerated individuals to receive vocational and technology training programs and set them on a path to success. This recorded webinar highlights state and local examples of how leaders in this space are creating economic development opportunities for justice-impacted individuals and how they are defining their digital equity baselines, indicators, and goals, as well as tools they use to measure success.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on rehabilitative programs, including education programs, that are provided in state prison systems. State and federal correctional systems implemented a variety of policies to prevent or contain the spread of COVID-19 within this population. As part of this response, many correctional systems ceased or substantially cut back on programming starting in 2020; this included shutting down ongoing education and workforce training programs, as well as other programs and activities, and preventing instructors and other staff from entering prison…
