Policy Examples

JFF's Center for Justice and Economic Advancement will be holding an Info Session about their Fair Chance Hiring in Hiring Education Learning Series on May 12th from 2-3 pm ET.  If you would like to learn more about the Learning Series, and how your institution could benefit from participating, please fell free to register. 

The Fair Chance Hiring in Higher Ed Learning Series is a one semester professional learning experience being held virtually this Fall and is designed for colleges and universities interested in expanding…

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:…

The New England Prison Education Collaborative invites you to the second session in our quarterly virtual workshop series, “Navigating the PEP Approval process: Forming Best Interest Determination (BID) Stakeholder Groups.”  

Date and Time: Wednesday, December 17, 3-4:15 P.M. EDT  

Register here: Navigating the PEP Approval Process: Forming Best Interest Determination (BID) Stakeholder Groups | Meeting-Join |…

This report addresses three questions about state-level recidivism trends:

  • What progress has been made?
  • How much could states save by reducing recidivism further?
  • Are states ready to expand their efforts?

Date: May 17, 2024

Time: 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Location: University of Southern Maine (USM), Portland, Maine

More information and registration to follow. 

Reentry Sisters, the National Council, Women Transcending, and the Opportunity Scholars, with the generous support of the Bingham Project at USM, offer a forum by justice-impacted women to strategize; share resources; and create action plans for legislative change, the…

Hey, everybody!

I want to take this week's post as an opportunity to uplift my girl, Brittany LaMarr! Brittany is a formerly incarcerated prison education advocate, and works with the National Prison Debate League (and was instrumental in making arrangements for the establishment and launch of the MCC Women's Debate team, along with NPDL Director Daniel Throop).

It has been my pleasure to have been a co-speaker with Brittany to discuss our support for the New England Board of Higher Education's Commission on the Future of Education in Prison's report recommendations to…

Many universities, community colleges, certificate/technical and vocational programs, and non-accredited courses have already joined the growing HEP community, and with the expansion of Pell, it is now more important than ever for educators hoping to make a foray into prison education spaces to have resources and guidance to start their prison education partnership program.

If you've ever wondered, how does a HEP or a PEP get started? Never fear! The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators has constructed a resource page to help those who are looking to enter…

So proud of my Justice Think Tank colleagues Linda Small and Chandler Dugal for their op-ed piece that was published in the Bangor Daily News! Their cowritten article centers on the prong of our Criminal Code group's work that researched record sealing and expungement for formerly incarcerated people and proposed an implementation strategy for the state of Maine!

https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/02/20/opinion/opinion-contributor/criminal-record-…

The Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative, launched by the U.S. Department of Education in 2015, provides need-based Pell Grants to people in state and federal prisons. Second Chance Pell has active partnerships with 64 colleges that teach in 28 states. The schools were selected in June 2016 for the initiative, which examines whether expanding access to financial aid increases incarcerated adults’ partici­pation in educational opportunities. The Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) is providing technical assistance to the participating colleges and corrections departments, helping…

I came across this post in some research that I performed for one of my work groups for justice-impacted professional training design and my heart was warmed by the progressive step that Washington State Department of Corrections is taking to improve their system by hiring a formerly incarcerated person for a salaried administrative position.

It was nearly a year ago today that this job post was circulated and in honor of this momentous anniversary, I thought it would be befitting for my first ever RCHEP post to celebrate and share this immense victory as proof of what is possible.…