Reentry

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.

On September 30, 2024, Ithaka S+R released a new research report exploring how colleges and community organizations partner to provide reentry services. 

The following text was posted on the Ithaka S+R blog to announce publication.

When revised federal Pell Grant regulations went into effect in July of 2023, one of the provisions stipulated that college in prison programs would be obliged to document how they provide reentry services or what organization(s) they partner with to do so. Ithaka S+R’s new report, Exploring the Landscape of College and Community Reentry Partnerships, examines how colleges and community organizations can best partner to deliver effective services for reintegrating students. This report represents the first findings from a multi-year project made possible with funding from ECMC Foundation.

Because there is a large body of scholarship on reentry needs and services, and it can be overwhelming to find a point of entry, we’ve designed this report to help professionals working in colleges, universities, and postsecondary education in prison programs begin to navigate the space. The report provides key takeaways from existing research and highlights from case studies of how postsecondary institutions serve their reintegrating and formerly incarcerated students.

The report also briefly highlights some of the ways that reentry programming and student basic-needs programming overlap—an issue that will be important to consider in future research. Moreover, colleges and universities that serve, or plan to serve, substantial populations of nontraditional students would do well to consider whether their programs are designed, and staff are trained, to reach and serve students impacted by the criminal legal system.

Below we offer key findings. See the full report to explore case studies of the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons initiative, the Emerson Prison Initiative, the Washington University in St. Louis Prison Education Project, and the College Gateway Program at Red Rocks Community College.

Key Findings

• The field of providers serving the needs of returning citizens is at once large and disaggregated.
• Contextual factors such as education and employment; family and social support networks; state, local, and charitable service and program offerings; and college support services all influence individual reintegration needs and priorities.
• Reintegration needs, therefore, must be individually assessed and prioritized for each student on a case-by-case basis.
• Colleges employ a variety of partnership structures and service coordination strategies to ensure that reintegrating students have their needs met. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, it is clear that cross-departmental and cross-organizational collaboration—both within and beyond the university—communication, and coordination are important to aid successful transition to college on the outside.

This research report offers findings to guide discussions with program administrators, faculty, and formerly incarcerated students on how to improve student access, curriculum choice, retention, and completion. To see how SUNY programs serve people in New York prisons and after they leave incarceration, SUNY’s Office of Higher Education in Prison (SUNY HEP) created a longitudinal data system that links regularly collected student data from the SUNY Institutional Research Information System (SIRIS) and the National Student Clearinghouse with individual-level corrections data from DOCCS. This report, the third in a series (Gais et al., 2019; Gais, Grace, and Wilner, 2021), draws on these data to analyze incarcerated student enrollment, diversity, course subject areas, retention, and completion.

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.

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. 

Access to education is in high demand among the incarcerated population. There are clear benefits to students who are incarcerated, their families and communities, public safety, and safety inside prisons. Yet the gap in educational aspirations and participation has been largely driven by a lack of capacity due to limited funding.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Criminal Justice Investment Initiative funded the College-in-Prison Reentry Initiative (CIP) to close this gap by expanding access to college education in prisons throughout New York State. This fact sheet unpacks the impact of participation in degree programs offered by seven colleges participating in CIP and reveal the effects that college in prison can have on in-facility behavior, recidivism, employment, and income after release.

Access to education is in high demand among the incarcerated population. There are clear benefits to students who are incarcerated, their families and communities, public safety, and safety inside prisons. Yet the gap in educational aspirations and participation has been largely driven by a lack of capacity due to limited funding.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Criminal Justice Investment Initiative funded the College-in-Prison Reentry Initiative (CIP) to close this gap by expanding access to college education in prisons throughout New York State. In this report, Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) researchers unpack the impact of participation in degree programs offered by seven colleges participating in CIP and reveal the effects that college in prison can have on in-facility behavior, recidivism, employment, and income after release. Vera additionally presents a cost analysis of program delivery and potential expansion, in order to better understand the potential return on investment of such initiatives.

This report summarizes the impact of BPI’s work on prison and education policy and the lives of the individuals who participate in and graduate from their programs.

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.

This brief is part of a series that highlights key issues and best practices discussed at Bridging the Gap: Postsecondary Pathways for Underprepared Learners. Other topics include support services to help underprepared students balance school and daily life, and engaging employers to help build effective pathways to work.

In February of 2021, Ascendium supported Open Campus Media’s virtual convening of more than 100 attendees exploring the future of technology in postsecondary education in prison. Representatives from universities, advocacy groups, funders, and state corrections systems examined such topics as student perspectives on technology in prison education and the lifting of the Pell Grant ban. This summary highlights the day’s discussions.

This webinar showcases the work of several prison-based education programs to develop student advisory boards in prison, establish reentry navigators on college campuses, and collaborate with formerly incarcerated people within student-led and other community-based organizations that support current students.

Federal Student Aid has published this fact sheet with instructions on how incarcerated borrowers can get out of default through the Fresh Start initiative. It also briefly addresses other relief options, including contact information for the office that handles complaints—the Office of the Student Loan Ombudsman.

Estimates of post-release economic effects of participation in prison-based general educational development (GED) programs using a panel of earnings records and a rich set of individual information from administrative data in the state of Florida.

Annual report: This program seeks to assist in reducing recidivism by 1) providing outcome and evidence-based Academic, Social Science, and Career and Technical Education programs; and 2) ensuring that students obtain marketable job skills prior to community reentry. This program serves adult men, with college credit and non-credit offerings. Instruction is on-site, face-to-face, and remote.

This guide from the College System of Tennessee seeks to offer guidance and dispel myths regarding occupational licensure both for prior justice-involved students as well as stakeholders such as advisors, college personnel, and others who may act as gatekeepers to these various occupations.

While this guide is not comprehensive, it does present licensure pathways and information for 12 in-demand occupations requiring licensure in Tennessee.