What is the state of the field of higher education in prison? What is its future? In this group, you can join conversations that critically reflect on the culture, history, and future of the field.
Topics include, but are not limited to, the culture of HEP programs and classrooms, norms in the field, the history of the field, and its future.
Group Content
NEPEC to release Accelerator Grants Request for Proposals | Wednesday 4/30/2025
The New England Prison Education Collaborative (NEPEC), led by the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE), and funded by Ascendium Education Group, will release the Request for Proposals (RFP) for its inaugural Accelerator Grants on Wednesday, April 30, 2025.
Five Accelerator Grants will be awarded to eligible higher education institutions located across the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont to increase Pell-eligible prison education programming in their state.
Grant recipients will develop or expand programs, build partnerships, increase access to Pell funding, and support reentry efforts for students transitioning back to campus and home. Applicants are asked to submit proposals for $100,000 of funding for use over 12 months. Grant applications will be due on Friday, June 6, 2025.
To learn more, access the full RFP, and register for the webinar, visit: https://nebhe.org/higher-education-in-prison/our-work/higher-education-engagement/accelerator-grants-rfp-year-1/.
College Inside: A Newsletter About the Future of Postsecondary Education in Prisons (Full Archive)
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.
NPR: How a Prison Education Program Is Building Community on the Inside—and Out
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.
Open Campus: California Inmates Depended on Community Colleges. What Happens When Their Prisons Close?
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.
Open Campus: Prison Education Programs Are Primed to Take Off in Mississippi. Here’s What One Class Looks Like.
This news article from Open Campus takes us inside a prison education program in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
National Data Sources on Prison Education Programs and Students
This resource from Jobs for the Future (JFF) can help postsecondary institutions capitalize on existing national data sources to obtain information on prison education programs and students.
In this resource, overviews for the following data sources are provided:
- Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
- Federal Student Aid (FSA) data
- Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) Survey of Incarcerated Adults
- Education Justice Tracker (EJT)
- National Student Clearinghouse (NSC)
- National Directory of Higher Education in Prison Programs
Open Campus: ‘We Need More High-Impact Learning Practices in Prison’
This news article from Open Campus highlights key takeaways from the 2023 National Conference for Higher Education in Prison (NCHEP).
Open Campus: When Education Becomes the Metric for Clemency, Some People Get Left Behind
This news article from Open Campus highlights the work of one of the first incarcerated professors in the country, David Carillo, who teaches incarcerated students in an undergraduate business program at Adams State University in Colorado.
Open Campus: How This Vietnam Vet Started a College Program at a Desert Prison
This news article from Open Campus tells the story of James “Sneaky” White, who spent nearly four decades incarcerated in California. Mr. White's nickname “Sneaky” comes from his days as a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. While he was incarcerated, Mr. White helped create a college program that has since graduated more than 1,500 men. At the time, San Quentin was the only other prison in the state where incarcerated people could earn degrees.
College Inside: A Newsletter About the Future of Postsecondary Education in Prisons (November-December 2023 Edition)
A biweekly newsletter from Open Campus about the future of postsecondary education in prisons. This edition features coverage from the National Conference for Higher Education in Prisons held in Atlanta in November 2023. We also take a trip to a spa in Thailand that trains incarcerated women, and we share more results from our reader survey on technology. Finally, Kunlyna Tauch in California writes about how access to a laptop after 17 years inside changed everything.
Check Out Unlock Higher Education's Pell Reinstatement Page
Brandon Adams shared this great resource through the Whova app.
College Inside Newsletter and Archives
A biweekly newsletter about the future of postsecondary education in prisons. Written by Open Campus staff reporter Charlotte West. Webpage includes links to previous print issues.
Harassment, Discouragement, and Intimidation of College Students in Prison: A Qualitative Study on the Prevalence of Disciplinary Power in Prison Higher Education (blog post)
This blog post discusses a descriptive research study by Caisa Elizabeth Royer, Erin L. Castro, and Estefanie Aguilar Padilla that explores the experiences of prison stakeholders in higher education with prison disciplinary power. Based on interviews with 19 prison education stakeholders, including program directors, instructors, family members of incarcerated students, and program alumni, the authors’ findings indicate that officer-initiated discipline interferes with the aims of college in prison programs and incarcerated students’ ability to be successful. The analysis provides rich insight into the ordinary ways prison officers discourage, disrupt, intimidate, and deliberately obstruct student engagement with prison higher education and those programs’ ability to provide coursework.
HEP Community Newsletter Archives
This webpage includes links to each HEP newsletter.
