This user-friendly Language Matters Guide builds on Jobs for the Future's 40 years of experience in the education and workforce ecosystem. The guide offers suggestions on how to write and speak about people in ways that promote equity, dignity, and a focus on each individual's potential—rather than labeling them based on the systemic barriers they face.
Topics covered include skills and socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, criminal justice, and more. Because language is fluid, the recommendations will evolve.
Colleagues -
Greetings and happy Monday (or whatever day it is that you read this). Many of you know that the Bloomsbury Prison Education Handbook is coming out October 3, 2024, so we're less than 4 months out. Given what seems to be a very positive internal response to the text, there have been conversations about a potential second book. As a result, I'll be putting together a proposal for said second text, with the hope that it covers the topics we didn't address in the handbook and…
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.
People who are incarcerated have historically been vulnerable to exploitation in research. This brief highlights resources on best practices for researchers to protect the autonomy, privacy, and rights of individuals who are incarcerated.
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.
