People who are incarcerated have historically been vulnerable to exploitation in research. This brief highlights resources on best practices for researchers to protect the autonomy, privacy, and rights of individuals who are incarcerated.
This article reports that many people in Illinois prisons believe they are not getting the full sentence reductions allowed under a new law that gives credit for participating in education, work, and other programs. As many as 1,000 people who are still in custody could be eligible for immediate release if they received proper sentence recalculations.
This article discusses results published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Massachusetts Lowell of a two-year study of Brave Behind Bars, MIT's web design program for incarcerated students. The qualitative study evaluated the effects of teaching HTML and JavaScript to incarcerated students, highlighting a notable increase in their self-confidence and digital competencies—key factors in reducing recidivism, or the rate at which people who are released return to prison.
Accessing high-speed internet in correctional settings can serve as a conduit for incarcerated individuals to receive vocational and technology training programs and set them on a path to success. This recorded webinar highlights state and local examples of how leaders in this space are creating economic development opportunities for justice-impacted individuals and how they are defining their digital equity baselines, indicators, and goals, as well as tools they use to measure success.
This resource explores essential guidelines and best practices for data use agreements in postsecondary education in prison programs.
With support from the Ascendium Education Group and the Ichigo Foundation, Jobs for the Future’s Center for Justice & Economic Advancement is excited to launch the Normalizing Education Collective (the Collective), a year-long community of practice designed to support non-profit postsecondary institutions nationwide as they explore building or expanding high-quality postsecondary pathways in prison that…
Hi everyone!
I was wondering if anyone had any experience paying individuals who participate in research projects, in the form of honorariums, while they are incarcerated? Our organization has never used JPAY and it seems to be one of the only options available. We could always provide a gift card, mail a check or send payment to someone else who could then deposit it in their accounts, but this doesn't seem accessible to all individuals and not sure a check would be accepted by the department of corrections and pretty sure gift cards are a no. Any guidance would be appreciated and…
Hi everyone,
I am a PhD student in Computer Science at UC San Diego, and my research focus is improving computer science higher education in prisons. I recently published a research report at a computing education research conference (ACM SIGCSE), which I wanted to share here to get feedback from the HEP community and connect with others doing similar work.
Here is the abstract:
Efforts to bring incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals into the field of computing stand to improve equitable…
This news article from Open Campus describes the experiences of an incarcerated student using an illicit cell phone to take college courses from prison. The person interviewed is incarcerated in the South and currently works as a hospice volunteer and mentors justice-involved young adults. No identifying information is included in order to protect him from potential consequences for possessing a contraband cell phone.
This news article from Open Campus discusses the compounding issues of technology troubles inside prisons. When prison tech stops working, those inside are left with limited recourse.
