Hey RCHEP Community,
Have you learned with FICGN yet? Join us tomorrow for the last HEP Orientation Learning & Feedback Session, where we'll explore the impact of K-12 education on higher ed in prison and reentry success in our "Lessons from Local Leaders" workshop.
Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2026
Time: 11am ET/8am PT
Register and Attend:…
Earning a postsecondary credential is a critical pathway to economic success. However, for more than 70 million people with a history of arrest, conviction, or incarceration, involvement in the criminal legal system results in a series of collateral consequences that limit their upward economic mobility. Limited access to education is one of these consequences. For decades, individuals who were incarcerated were not eligible for Pell Grants, a form of federal financial aid to help eligible students pay for college. As a result, higher education in prison was rare.…
Teaching and learning centers—encompassing writing centers, academic support services, tutoring programs, and faculty development hubs—are home to experienced staff committed to inclusive pedagogy, student success, and continuous faculty learning. Yet many of these educational developers are unaware of their university’s own HEP program and the students who could benefit tremendously from their support.
…Please see the just-released special issue of Liminalities dedicated to Performance Praxis in Carceral Spaces. Edited by Kamran Afary, Greg Langner, and Allen Burnett, the issue centers performance as survival, disruption, and collective imagining across carceral contexts.
Founded in 2005, Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies is an open-access, peer-reviewed multimedia publication that addresses three needs in performance studies scholarship and practice: 1) expanding opportunities to share peer-reviewed work, 2) creating a space for the…
San Francisco Public Library’s Jail and Reentry Services librarians and information workers conducted a literature review of
academic articles, books and book chapters, and popular materials related to this topic published from January of 2020 to December of 2022.
Becoming an alumnus is about more than just a diploma or a completed program. It's about the memories forged, the friendships made, and the enduring sense of belonging that can enrich a person's life long after graduation. I know this feeling intimately. Though my time on campus was brief, I’ll always be a Colorado Buffalo. That shared identity keeps me connected to a broader network, allows me to support future students, and inspires me to proudly wear my CU gear whenever the Buffs play.
This powerful connection isn't unique to traditional college graduates.…
A growing body of research documents the barriers faced by incarcerated students—such as limited access to technology and conflicts with correctional staff—but far less attention has been paid to the role of the built environment in shaping educational experiences. This project, led by Ennead Lab and Ithaka S+R, examines how spatial, architecture, and design features impact learning inside prisons. It draws on qualitative interviews with formerly incarcerated students and prison education program staff, and site visits to five correctional facilities, to advance both research findings and…
Launched in 2019 with support from the Tennessee Higher Education Initiative (THEI), the Tennessee Prison College Coalition (TPCC) seeks to increase collaboration between Tennessee state agencies, higher education institutions, and nonprofit partners building postsecondary education pathways for students who are justice-impacted, both in prison and the free world. TPCC brings together leaders from THEI, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC), Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD…
Ithaka S+R designed a playbook to help correctional education leaders center student learning as they navigate the education technology landscape. The guide, created with support from Ascendium Education Group and in dialogue with several correctional education leaders, provides decision-making tools and frameworks to assist leaders as they consider how to implement new education technology in prisons.
The playbook includes:
- A framework to help correctional…
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…
