Pathways to Campus

Breaking Barriers: Bridging Worlds in Prison Education and Student Advising

From June 14-16, 2024, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) is hosting a unique convening focused on policies, techniques, and practices for providing the full suite of advising services for students who are incarcerated. prison education programs (PEPs) need to ensure they are operating in the "best interest of the students" per the regulations, in order to retain their right to administer financial aid. Equitable high-quality advising plays a major role in this. But…

Good morning all,

I hope this finds you well. I am reaching out to those who are offering educational programming (BA/AA/certificate program) inside BOP facilities. I was part of the team that created the BA program inside Pelican Bay State Prison (Cal Poly Humboldt), and am now working with Cal State Long Beach Project Rebound on building an education program inside, so  I am somewhat familiar with the relationship between the university and state facilities (CDCR), but have questions about working with the federal system. I am working towards building a program in California…

MIT is holding an event to gather professors, students, policy makers, and members of the business community to discuss equitable hiring practices and the barriers that individuals from marginalized communities face in the socioeconomic and professional arenas. This event is to discuss and improve public support for second chance hiring practices for formerly incarcerated individuals, and will be featuring the story of Daniel Dart, MIT's first formerly incarcerated student at the Sloan School of Business. 

MIT Sloan EMBA student Daniel Dart, EMBA '24, is a leader in Second…

With a submission deadline of May 1, 2024, The Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities is soliciting manuscripts for their journal on the role of higher education in prison and returning citizens on campuses and communities. The purpose of this issue's theme is to gain insight into how higher education institutions address prison education, transition, and reentry for incarcerated students.

The topic suggestions for content are fairly broad, but all must include evidence-based theories or practice with supportive data.

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This news article from Open Campus is a guest essay written by Lyle C. May, a prison journalist in North Carolina. In the essay, Mr. May writes about how gaining access to education on death row gave him the tools to fight back against policies that restricted that access.

This news article focuses on the experiences of Lyle C. May, a prison journalist in North Carolina. Lyle writes about how gaining access to education on death row gave him the tools to fight back against policies that restricted that access.

These best practices from Jobs for the Future (JFF) can help those involved in prison education build post-release educational pathways for incarcerated students. 

For many people who are incarcerated, postsecondary classes offered by the facility in which they’re serving their sentence represent a first step on an educational journey that is likely to continue after they are released—one that could ultimately lead to an industry-recognized credential, an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, or even a master’s degree or a PhD. To facilitate the process of moving from incarceration…

TODAY!  On January 31 from 2:00-3:15 ET, NASFAA (National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators) will host a free and publicly available webinar. See below for a description and links to register.

Workshop: Completing the Paper 24/25 FAFSA With Students Who Are Incarcerated

Financial aid advising is an essential component of Prison Education Programs (PEPs). Many PEPs rely on the paper FAFSA when serving students who are incarcerated. We expect…

Check out my article, published by Open Campus! It was an honor to share a look at the transformative experience I was blessed to have teaching as a Visiting Instructor at Colby College.

"Incarcerated people are rarely hired for outside jobs. A teaching gig changed my life."  https://www.opencampusmedia.org/2024/01/03/incarcerated-people-are-rarely-hired-for-outside-jobs-a-teaching-gig-changed-my-life/

Please also see "Colorado…

A biweekly newsletter from Open Campus about the future of postsecondary education in prisons. This edition features coverage from the National Conference for Higher Education in Prisons held in Atlanta in November 2023. We also take a trip to a spa in Thailand that trains incarcerated women, and we share more results from our reader survey on technology. Finally, Kunlyna Tauch in California writes about how access to a laptop after 17 years inside changed everything.