Advocacy and Policy

A New Path: Deportation to Honduras is a new guide from the Education Justice Project that provides clear, practical information for individuals facing deportation to Honduras.

The guide covers:

• What to expect upon arrival in Honduras, including how to stay safe;
• Information on housing, employment, education, and more;
• Practical tips for navigating the return and reintegration process;
• A directory of organizations offering support.

Created collaboratively with non-profits and recently deported individuals, our goal is not to facilitate deportation. Rather, we aim to deliver critical information to those facing deportation.

Download the free pdfs (in English and Spanish) at https://reentryillinois.net/a-new-path-individual-chapters/#honduras-deportation-guide

This Honduras deportation guide is part of a larger resource called A New Path: A Guide to the Challenges and Opportunities After Deportation. We are in the process of updating this guide for 2026 and are sharing out individual chapters as they become available. To request copies of the most recent print edition, please fill out this request form.

This series of essays from the State University of New York (SUNY) showcases the stories of SUNY students and others connected to higher education in prison—stories that inspire, challenge, and enrich their communities. By sharing these lived experiences, SUNY aims to illuminate the broader significance of prison education programs and garner the support needed to expand SUNY's exceptional offerings, ensuring equitable access to higher education for all incarcerated individuals.

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. 

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 Education (SAVE) Plan. Borrowers who are incarcerated can still sign up for Fresh Start until September 30, 2024, as an additional option to exit default. Previously, this population of borrowers would have to rehabilitate their loans to get out of default, rather than having the option to consolidate.

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 reports that many people in Illinois prisons believe they are not getting the full sentence reductions allowed under a new law that gives credit for participating in education, work, and other programs. As many as 1,000 people who are still in custody could be eligible for immediate release if they received proper sentence recalculations. 

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.

The Incarceration Nations Network (INN) developed this toolkit to push for long-term systemic change that moves spending away from futile punishment and devastating harm and toward community justice. This toolkit describes what this effort looks like in the context of the United States. 

This paper presents preliminary findings from a survey SHEEO administered to its members in 2018. The paper is organized around three main categories: access, program delivery, and reentry of program participants into society.

Led by the inaugural cohort of the Justice Fellows Policy Program, The Education Trust, in partnership with local higher education and justice advocates, analyzed state support for currently and formerly incarcerated students in eight states—California, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas—and developed state-specific toolkits to help advocates and policymakers tear down the remaining barriers for justice-impacted students.

Led by the inaugural cohort of the Justice Fellows Policy Program, The Education Trust, in partnership with local higher education and justice advocates, analyzed state support for currently and formerly incarcerated students in eight states—California, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas—and developed state-specific toolkits to help advocates and policymakers tear down the remaining barriers for justice-impacted students.

Led by the inaugural cohort of the Justice Fellows Policy Program, The Education Trust, in partnership with local higher education and justice advocates, analyzed state support for currently and formerly incarcerated students in eight states—California, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas—and developed state-specific toolkits to help advocates and policymakers tear down the remaining barriers for justice-impacted students.

Led by the inaugural cohort of the Justice Fellows Policy Program, The Education Trust, in partnership with local higher education and justice advocates, analyzed state support for currently and formerly incarcerated students in eight states—California, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas—and developed state-specific toolkits to help advocates and policymakers tear down the remaining barriers for justice-impacted students.

Led by the inaugural cohort of the Justice Fellows Policy Program, The Education Trust, in partnership with local higher education and justice advocates, analyzed state support for currently and formerly incarcerated students in eight states—California, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas—and developed state-specific toolkits to help advocates and policymakers tear down the remaining barriers for justice-impacted students.

Led by the inaugural cohort of the Justice Fellows Policy Program, The Education Trust, in partnership with local higher education and justice advocates, analyzed state support for currently and formerly incarcerated students in eight states—California, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas—and developed state-specific toolkits to help advocates and policymakers tear down the remaining barriers for justice-impacted students.

Led by the inaugural cohort of the Justice Fellows Policy Program, The Education Trust, in partnership with local higher education and justice advocates, analyzed state support for currently and formerly incarcerated students in eight states—California, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas—and developed state-specific toolkits to help advocates and policymakers tear down the remaining barriers for justice-impacted students.

The Rise Up Conference seeks to liberate higher education during and after prison. It highlights the role of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in birthing this movement, the ways in which these spaces have been occupied by others, the assets we offer to these spaces, and the ways in which allies can help foster liberation. The conference also provides perspectives on higher education during and after prison that are unique to those with lived expertise.

The book is a collection of critical prose and poetry by esteemed artists and scholars (including Joshua Bennett, Ellen Bass, Joy Priest, Mahogany Brown, and so many more) about their experiences facilitating arts workshops in prisons. The intended audience includes college (and beyond) students in inside/out-type programs (or other programs where they facilitate educational programming in prisons); teachers of such programs; students and researchers interested in arts in corrections programming—really, anyone involved in higher ed in prison AND/OR arts in prison efforts!