This Best Interest Determination (BID) Toolkit was created by the Vera Institute of Justice, in partnership with a BID Council and the members of the 2024 Corrections Education Leadership Academy (CELA), to be a resource for corrections agencies to prepare their BID system with all processes, procedures, and stakeholders in place, as necessary, to assess postsecondary institutions offering a PEP, according to federal regulations. To maintain their PEP status, postsecondary institutions must work with their correctional partner, otherwise known as the oversight entity, to complete a program…
With generous support from Ascendium Education Group and over ten years of experience facilitating college programming in Tennessee’s prisons, THEI has created Navigating Forward, a collection of clear, digestible, and comprehensive college navigation materials explicitly designed for learners in the carceral context, with special consideration for the unique challenges and needs of Prison Education Program (PEP) students. Each collection comprises individual resources that can stand alone or be shared collectively. A Glossary of Terms also accompanies the three collections…
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…
📝 Call for Manuscripts: Exploring the Role of Higher Education in Prison and Returning People on Campuses and Communities from the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities.
📚 This call for complete, full manuscripts is open to all authors who are engaged in the scholarly exploration of programs, initiatives, and/or research centers that implement support for returning community members or facilitate higher education in prison and its impact on campuses and communities.
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The U.S. Department of Labor will be granting $52 million to support projects that advance pre-release job training and apprenticeship programs for incarcerated individuals.
These Pathway Home grants will be awarded to projects that provide incarcerated individuals with legal assistance, counseling, job search strategies and other foundational skills prior to release. These grants—ranging from $1 million to $4 million to each recipient—demonstrate the value of initiatives like Education in Action that close the gaps between higher education in prison and employment opportunities.…
The information provided here from Jobs for the Future (JFF) is a snapshot of factors to consider when offering programs to students who are incarcerated and who are not eligible for Pell Grants. Universities and colleges are individually operated, and not all strategies are equally applicable.
This resource from Jobs for the Future (JFF) is designed to help prison education programs, correctional agencies, and financial aid departments establish the critical partnerships necessary to effectively administer the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to incarcerated students. Keep in mind that the details may vary depending on state and local context.
This fact sheet was produced by the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to provide information on BJA-funded programs that support corrections. This document belongs to a series of fact sheets that highlight BJA-funded programs that support different focuses.
This is a transcript from the DOJ OJP's Justice Matters podcast from Second Chance Month, April 2022. The BJA Director of Criminal Justice Innovation, Development, and Engagement meets with Chris Poulos—lawyer, professor, former White House intern, Director of Person-Centered Services for the Washington State DOC, and formerly incarcerated person/person with lived experience. The two discuss Chris's position within the WA DOC, challenges he's come across in Washington reentry and challenges in reentry in general, successes in Washington reentry and how to measure progress, and how his…
This is a solicitation for grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance.
