This research article summarizes the results of a series of studies conducted by the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council to evaluate the ability of the Texas prison educational system to improve the educational level of inmates, enhance their employment prospects, and lower their recidivism rates.

The Three-State Recidivism Study reviews one of the major functions of the criminal justice system, that is, to rehabilitate. Over the past decade, greater emphasis has been placed on the other major rationales, specifically incarceration and punishment, without much commitment to rehabilitation. The result of the push to incarcerate and punish that occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s is an unprecedented growth in the
size of the nation’s prison and jail populations, even as crime rates have decreased. Given the economic hardship of maintaining federal, state, and local correctional systems, and the number of people in jails and prisons, society can no longer afford to ignore ways to reduce crime and lower over-burdening costs resulting from high incarceration rates. Since there are methods and programs that work, our intent is to bring this information to political leaders, the media, and the public to shed light on successful alternatives to the current system. This executive summary shares the results of the findings from the Three-State Recidivism Study.

This report provides an introduction to services and programs available within California by collecting descriptive information about each. These programs do not necessarily represent a catalog of best practices or model programs that have been proven to be effective. Rather, this report is a starting block from which to build that analysis, and the authors suggest that as the next important stage in related research.

The first webinar in the Pipeline to Pell series will be held on Thursday, November 2, at 11:00 am ET. The webinar will focus on the FAFSA Simplification Act, Pell Grants, and prison education programs.

The second webinar in the Pipeline to Pell series will be held on Wednesday, November 15, at 3:00 p.m. ET. The webinar will focus on the roles of states, localities, and other relevant stakeholders.

This is an evaluation of the Prison University Project (PUP) at San Quentin State Prison, which is an accredited college program administered through Patten University. It offers an associate's degree in liberal arts to prisoners with high school degrees or GEDs.

The Higher Education in Prison Key Performance Indicator Framework is designed to help HEP programs measure the impact they have on students, institutions, facilities, and communites by including indicators that help measure student success outcomes, academic quality, civic engagement, and soft skill development.

An abridged account of the keynote address at the 2013 National Conference on Higher Education in Prison at Saint Louis University, which focused on the power of prison higher education to bring about an end to this society’s grossly excessive reliance on incarceration.

Using data for a cohort of federal prison releasees, the hypothesis tested is that inmates who actively participate in education programs have a lower likelihood of recidivating, defined as a rearrest or parole revocation within 3 years after release, controlling for several background and post-release measures, including post-release employment. Results show that inmates who actively participate in education programs have a significantly lower likelihood of recidivating.

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.

This is a report that uplifts the voices of formerly incarcerated students in California's public colleges and universities.

Blog post describing the reality of prisons being used as cages or schools.

This resource is a research brief presenting data on the impact of education on crime and crime prevention. This brief also examines the debate on providing higher education to people who are incarcerated.

This resource is a guidebook for re-entering society with technology.

This report aims to stimulate conversation about the benefits of HEP in the state, describe the development of HEP nationally and in Illinois, and provide a blueprint for overcoming existing barriers to expanding quality HEP in all Illinois prisons.

A guide to reentering society. Made by members of the EJP.

A guide to successful reentry for audiences nationwide.

This guide is for people who live with the threat of deportation to Mexico or Central America. This guide helps people to know their rights, learn where to access legal assistance, and make plans in case of possible deportation. There are five main section in A New Path: Preparing for Possible Deportation; After Your Return; Healing and Moving Forward; Deportation to Central America; and Directory and Additional Resources. This guide also offers supportive words from people who have been deported. Some of them are alumni of the Education Justice Project, a college-in-prison program at Danville Correctional Center in Illinois.

This report seeks to expand college opportunities for currently and formerly incarcerated students in California.

This study is a longitudinal, mixed-methods effort to document the effects of participation in the college program at San Quentin State Prison. The college program is administered by a non-profit called the Prison University Project, and has served thousands of incarcerated individuals since its founding.