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All posts are subject to the Alliance’s approval. The Alliance reserves the right to reject any post for not fulfilling the purpose of this News Page, which is to disseminate information related to the field of higher education in prison. If you have any questions, please contact alliance@higheredinprison.org.
The Landscape of Higher Education in Prison report provides a descriptive overview of the field of higher education in prison during the 2019-2020 academic year.
The Higher Education in Prison Community Job Board features career opportunities for the field of higher education in prison.
The Journal of Higher Education in Prison (est. 2019) is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes exclusively on topics and issues relevant to the field of higher education in prison. The Inaugural Volume contains two types of submissions: Contemporary Perspective Essays and Articles, contributed by advocates, practitiones, students, teachers and researchers in the field.
The Understanding the Landscape of Higher Education Prison Survey (Landscape Survey) was designed as a confidential follow-up to the 2020 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison Programs, distributed by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison. The Landscape Survey contained 93 questions designed to collect both descriptive and open-ended responses from participants about their college-in-prison programs during the 2018/2019 academic year. Included within this survey were specific questions about student, staff and volunteer demographics, program funding, student enrollment and admissions, program goals, and program evaluation.
The Alliance for Higher Education in Prison maintains the most comprehensive resource in the United States for people seeking information about national college in prison programs. The National Directory was launched in 2020.
Higheredinprison.org features a Community Events Calendar that contains current events happening in the higher education in prison community. Look for events from the Alliance for Higher Education and events hosted by the higher education in prison community.
The Alliance's COVID-19 Action page contains materials and resources created by/for or that are meaningful for higher education in prison programs from across the United States.
Read the Sentencing Project's 2022 Report: "Incarcerated Women and Girls"
PJP's Navigator is a new database that provides tools, resources, and unique insights aimed at spurring greater collaboration between external media outlets and incarcerated writers.
The U.S. Department of Education Announces Expansion of Second Chance Pell Experiment and Actions to Help Incarcerated Individuals Resume Educational Pathways.
This report pieces together the most recent national data on state prisons, federal prisons, local jails, and other systems of confinement to provide a snapshot of mass incarceration in the United States. Since we decided not to do a Whole Pie report in 2021 (due to pandemic-related delays in government data), this new edition offers the most comprehensive view of mass incarceration since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The Education Trust's Justice Fellows Policy Program has produced a toolkit identifying several unjust barriers that keep incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals from accessing a higher education and benefiting from it and participating fully in society.
The Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project newsletter, The Warbler, is available to anyone interested in being on their weekly distribution list and/or to receive copies to distribute to current students.
The book, "The Sentences That Create Us", features original pieces from Dwayne Betts, Mitch Jackson, Luis J. Rodriguez, Alejo Rodriguez (Zealous), and Vivian D. Nixon. With the support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation PEN America is giving away 75,000 copies to incarcerated people. We encourage readers to also submit a request to send a free book to a person who is currently incarcerated. Details available in the link included.
Listen to the New Podcast "On The Tier" produced by the UC Underground Scholars program.
With COVID still running rampant in our country, we encourage you to read this article about COVID-19 in the Texas State Prison System, published in the Journal of Urban Health (2021).
The webinar "Mass Incarceration is a Feminist Struggle: Voices of Formerly Incarcerated Women" centers on the voices and experiences of incarcerated women and their work to build communities free of mass incarceration. As society pushes for an end to mass incarceration, what do we want a future society to remember about the abolitionist efforts of today? Watch a recording of this panel discussion to learn more.
The Curriculum Guide for "Don't Shake the Spoon: A Journal of Prison Writing" is an attempt to connect users with the stories from the students of Exchange for Change and to inspire others to create their own stories to share the power of the written word.
On Wednesday October 27th CUNY launched the Supports for Students with Conviction Records webpage. The webpage is a project of the CUNY Justice Learning Collaborative, convened by the John Jay College Institute for Justice and Opportunity.
The Education Justice Project has publishes two reentry guides, "Mapping Your Future: A Guide to Successful Reentry in Illinois" and "A New Path: A Guide to the Challenges and Opportunities After Deportation".
This guide discusses how cultivating relationships with key stakeholders is critical for building a strong infrastructure for your program. Focusing on four categories of stakeholders, this guide is designed to help those new to the field to navigate and manage the different community members whose support is critical to the success and sustainability of college-in-prison programs. This guide is designed for anyone in the planning stages of their college-in-prison program or who have a program underway but are looking for ways to enhance or garnish more support for it.
Read Critical Resistance's New Resource Guide for Teaching and Learning Abolition
This report offers information about the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on higher education in prison programs. The data used for this report come from two sources: 1) the 2020 Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison Programs, and 2) the Understanding the Landscape of Higher Education in Prison Programs Survey.
A nationwide attempt to censor discussions about race and gender in the classroom is underway – and the academic framework known as Critical Race Theory (CRT) is front-and-center in the assault.
Trauma Informed LA is working to build community partnerships, foster authentic community engagement, and provide education and advocacy.
Formerly Incarcerated People Helped Design a Holistic Reentry Program. Stemming from inhumane isolation practices in Pelican Bay prisons where there is no nature in sight such as trees or other plants. Read about the Insight Garden Program, which connects incarcerated people to hands-on gardening and landscaping training.
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced it will expand the Second Chance Pell experiment for the 2022-2023 award year.
BAZAAR in partnership with PEN America's Prison Writing Program, the women reflect on finding community behind bars, seeking refuge in the arts, and the liberating power of language.
Visit the Higher Education in Prison Research website and explore this digital space centered around the creation of a robust, ethical, and sustainable higher education in prison research infrastructure.
The insidious use of background checks in employment, licensure, housing, and education is yet another example of the perpetual punishment endured by millions of Americans who have conviction records. The user-friendly design of this guide is intended to help people with conviction records navigate individual, institutional, and systemic barriers erected by the practice of background checks. While many valuable guides exist that help people with convictions understand their legal rights, this guide is unique because it aims to help people develop their own narrative. This guide is a continuation of our work to support people with convictions in navigating barriers to education and economic opportunity. Last year, we released Getting to Work with a Criminal Record: New York State License Guides (2020 Expanded Edition), which explains the process for obtaining licenses in 25, high-demand occupations and professions for people with conviction records. We remain committed to increasing access to opportunity for the millions of people impacted by the criminal legal system.
Mourning Our Losses is a crowd-sourced memorial to honor the lives of people who died in prisons, jails, and immigration detention facilities in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. We remember the lives of people who died from exposure to abominable public health conditions, as residents and as employees. Mourning Our Losses seeks to restore dignity to the faces and stories behind the statistics of death and illness from behind bars. We believe that a loss of any human life warrants mourning. We are united in our effort to honor our fallen brothers and sisters by telling their stories. We offer a platform for grief, healing, community, and reflection for all those touched by this preventable tragedy.
The Freedom Takes is a podcast from Freedom Reads (formerly the Million Book Project), produced for listeners in prison and out, that explores the relationship between literature and freedom. The Freedom Takes podcast is available for download on Apple Podcasts. A still-image movie version of The Freedom Takes podcast is also available on YouTube for closed-circuit TV channels to broadcast the show. Higher education in prison programs and any other in-prison education programs should contact Freedom Reads at freedomreads@yale.edu for the captioned video file versions for play on closed-circuit TV channels.
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Education announced the Second Chance Pell (SCP) experiment under the Experimental Sites Initiative, which allows incarcerated students who would be eligible for Pell Grants—a form of federal financial aid—if they were not incarcerated to access them while attending an eligible academic program offered by one of the colleges participating in the experiment. But filing for financial aid while incarcerated can be a formidable challenge. Drawing on the experiences of the first group of SCP colleges, this toolkit, drafted in collaboration with the Chemeketa Community College, is designed to aid new and existing participants as they guide students through the complexities of filing for federal financial aid in prison, including completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA.
