A short distance from Delhi sits Tihar Jail, one of the largest prisons in the world. The ten sub-jails within the prison complex are home to more than 13,500 inmates. Situated on the plains of northern India, the jail provides few comforts. Inmates bake through the sweltering heat of summer while winters are cold and
By Gloria Romero and Rishawn Biddle The deaths at the hands of the police of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, and the decisions not to prosecute officers in either case, should jolt reformers into demanding the transformation of both our failing public education and criminal justice systems – whose dysfunctions disproportionately affect poor, minority communities.
By Dianne Frazee-Walker The California prison system is stepping up to the plate by fighting fire with fire. Yes, that’s right — they are saving taxpayers money and providing low-level offenders with valuable skills and purpose by putting them to work fighting wildfires. Another side benefit of this ingenious project is California’s prisons are emptying
Last Christmas didn’t look promising for two young brothers whose lives consisted of living on the streets, drug deals, and gang initiations. Up until nine months ago, the brothers, whom we will call Troy and Devon, only had a 10th-grade education and no hope for the future. As a consequence of having a mother hooked
San Quentin is home to the Prison University Project, the largest on-site college-in-prison program among California state prisons. Inmates in PUP earn their associate’s degree for free, with volunteer instructors from schools like Stanford and UC Berkeley.
Opponents of higher education in prison, like those who voted down a proposal in New York earlier this year, say it’s wrong to give a taxpayer-funded degree to convicts. Some are fine with providing remedial and vocational education, but draw the line at college, a commodity families sacrifice thousands of dollars to give their children.
By Eric Thomas Weber In the dozen years that I have been teaching, two moments stand out as the most gripping experiences I have had in my classes. With a group of freshmen sitting by the Honors College fountain at the University of Mississippi, we once talked about philosopher John Lachs’s book, In Love with
By Keri Blakinger On Wednesday, Dec. 10, a group of 13 students looking much like any other group of graduates walked across the stage to accept their diplomas as the Class of 2014. Unlike most college graduates, though, this group was entirely comprised of prisoners, inmates at Auburn Correctional Facility, the state’s oldest prison. The
By Lauren Mazzo and Emily Hull / Just Ithaca For many modern-day high school students, graduating with a college-level degree is simply the next logical step in life; but for the 15 students of Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP) who will graduate on Dec. 10, it means a better chance at a jail-free future. CPEP is
By Chloe Della Costa U.S. college programs for incarcerated students were largely defunded in the ’90s. At the time, this was seemingly great news for “tough on crime” advocates, but this year, a new debate has erupted out of New York state. In February, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed an initiative to both educate New York’s