Prison Journalism Project (PJP) is looking for a Director of PJP Learning, who will oversee our PJP J-School curriculum program and the PJP Publishing practicum, which consists of our online publication. We seek a candidate with experience in journalism education, adult learning, the newsroom and leadership.

In a country with one of the world’s most expansive incarceration systems, some of the most important voices in our ongoing conversations about crime, justice and punishment — incarcerated people themselves —  are too often missing from the dialogue. The ideal candidate must appreciate the importance of shedding light from behind prison walls.

PJP is a fast-growing independent, non-profit journalism and education organization that aims to train incarcerated writers with the tools of journalism, so they can be published widely and contribute to an informed and intelligent public discourse about mass incarceration. We believe that intentional, responsible and well-crafted journalism from within the incarcerated community can break stereotypes, provide timely information about conditions inside America’s many prisons; and help create opportunities for writers after they re-enter society.

The director of learning is a new position that will oversee our training program and ensure that our key programs are synergistic, so writers develop their skills and progress along PJP’s training progression in a relatively timely manner. The position will oversee PJP J-School, PJP Publishing practicum, PJPxInside training newspaper and the Prison Newspaper Project.

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Salary and Benefits

$85,000 - $95,000
Generous paid time off
Health, dental and vision insurance
401K
Annual professional development stipend

Responsibilities and Duties:

The Director of PJP Learning reports directly to the CEO and Chief Education Officer, who are also the co-founders.

You will:

• Lead and help shape PJP’s overall education and publication strategy along with the CEO and Chief Education Officer to ensure that our curriculum and practicum training are cohesive.
• Lead the priorities and direction of PJP’s educational initiatives, including potential educational partnerships.
• Develop and lead the execution of a curriculum for PJP’s Training Progression.
• Work with the CEO and Chief Education Officer to develop and execute a hiring strategy for PJP Learning.
• Recruit, hire and manage contract curriculum developers.
• Oversee PJP Publishing alongside CEO/editor-in-chief and work with editorial staff to make sure that learning objectives are met through editorial and edit-coaching process.
• Oversee PJPxInside and Prison Newspaper Project.

• Oversee PJP Learning’s staffing and budget needs.

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Desired qualifications:

• 3+ years experience teaching in a newsroom or in a university. The candidate must understand journalism pedagogy
• Adult learning experience, curriculum development and monitoring and evaluation of educational initiatives
• Deep journalism experience: 5+ years minimum experience in a professional newsroom.
• High executive function: experience in an editorial leadership role
• Has their pulse on the kind of stories newsrooms and readers today are looking for
• Experience using PowerPoint to create and deliver training

• Strong interpersonal skills
• Strategic thinker
• Comfortable with public speaking
• Ability to foster a healthy work culture
• Understands the importance of building an equitable and inclusive team and culture
• Understands the importance of Duty of Care
• Leadership and coaching skills

• Exceptional time-management and organizational skills
• A strong writer with solid news judgment
• Fluency in English with a masterful grasp of grammar and AP style is a must

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More about PJP

PJP launched in April 2020 to train incarcerated writers and publish their experiences with the pandemic. We have since expanded to cover a much wider variety of issues inside in a wider variety of journalistic forms. We have run reported stories about mental health and addiction, essays on the everyday experiences of life behind bars, and op-eds and commentaries on public policy, higher education and solitary confinement, to name only a few. We also publish art and poetry with an emphasis on works that reflect true stories about life inside.

We have so far published over 2,000 pieces of work from more than 600 incarcerated and incarceration-impacted writers from 210+ prisons in 38 states. We are now looking to re-ground ourselves, so we can intentionally train writers from beginner to advanced levels to tell journalistic stories effectively and credibly, and in a way that resonates with audiences.  

Our online publication is a place for our writers to learn how to work with editors to develop powerful stories and experiment with how to tell stories from behind and around prison walls. We publish an award-winning quarterly instructional print newspaper called PJPxInside that showcases some of our writers’ best work and provides instruction on journalism tools and writing. We also work within the media industry to help advance journalism from prison.

Animating all of our efforts is a strong underlying commitment to duty of care, making sure that we are working with our writers responsibly and safely, without restricting their agency.

This is an exciting time to be joining us. We are seeing strong momentum and receiving a lot of attention. PJP has a fast-paced culture of innovation, reinvention and refinement. We are seeking someone who is versatile, can think outside of the box and would be excited about growing an organization that seeks to redefine journalism, help shed light on criminal justice from inside prisons and make the world a more just and humane place.