“Education was literally this rehabilitative thing for me and has helped propel me to where I am today.”

Stanley Andrisse

Assistant Professor, Howard University School of Medicine

“We have people who want to learn and who are eager to improve their lives and yet the narrative is that they are not deserving of that.”

Susannah Bannon

Doctoral Student, University of Texas Austin

“Colleges and universities must recognize incarcerated people as potential college students who are fully capable and worthy of their investment.”

Erin Castro

Assistant Professor of Higher Education, University of Utah

“Teachers who teach inside prison talk about what it’s like to teach someone who understands that the right to learn is not actually a right.”

Naomi Dennis

Advisory Board Chair, Alliance for Higher Education in Prison

“You have never seen real joy on a woman’s face until you saw her walk across a podium with her kids in the audience knowing that she achieved something while incarcerated that she may not have even imagined for herself when she was out.”

Michelle Jones

Doctoral Student, New York University

“What we are trying to do is build community inside of a system that is intentionally structured to divide people from each other.”

Molly Lasagna

Executive Director, Tennessee Higher Education Initiative

“It was in solitary confinement that I was exposed to the power of education and how it can serve as a tool for transformation.”

Danny Murillo

Research and Program Analyst, The Opportunity Institute

“I would hope that we can come together collectively, not just as formerly incarcerated people and progressive people, but as everyone in society.”

Devon Simmons

Global Ambassador for Education, John Jay College

“I really view higher ed in prison as this opportunity to make right our wrongs as a community where we failed, we get this second chance to succeed.”

Toya Wall

Senior Program Officer, Ascendium Education Group