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2011 PEN American Center Prison Writing Awards

The PEN American Center sponsors an annual writing awards contest for prisoners incarcerated in a federal, state, or local institution. This contest includes poetry, fiction, drama, and nonfiction writing. Thousands of writers from prisons across the country submit, vying to make the short list of winners. In the interest of supporting literary efforts and celebrating those incarcerated writers who have won, here are the 2011 contest winners:

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Providing College To Prison Inmates Series (Part 4)

This is the fourth blog post in the ‘Providing College To Prison Inmates Series.’ This series is based upon seven “Recommendations for Policy and Practice” presented by Contardo on pages 154 through 156 of her text Providing College To Prison Inmates.

“Accept both limitations and possibilities when considering how to provide correctional education.” –Contardo (pg. 155)

In the prison environment, utilizing innovative solutions for correctional education is not always an easy task. One might think the common sense path to fruition would be the most efficient route, but because of policy or politics, the path is closed. So, when hypothesizing about programming implementation, reality and experience are necessary elements. This is because, at times, rules and regulations are arbitrary, lacking any perceptible rhyme or reason. They are because they are and that is the way it will continue to be.

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Windham School District-A Leader in Correctional Education

Texas is a big state. And within this big state with a big heart is the Windham School District, which provides academic and vocational education to eligible offenders incarcerated within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDJC.) The Windham School District strongly believes that prison education is the key to reducing recidivism, and by providing

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“I Can’t Believe all the Sh*t I Don’t Know”

We have a lot of students with low self-esteem. One student I’ll call Mr. Miller* was really, really smart, but he just wasn’t doing anything in class. It dawned on me he didn’t know he was so smart.

Mr. Miller cracked me up one day when he was looking at a world map, and said to me, “I don’t understand why they even label the oceans. Why do they have an Atlantic Ocean, a Pacific Ocean, and a Lake Michigan? When you’re in a boat and you’re just driving along, or you’re in a ship and you’re riding along, there are no signs out there that say what ocean it is. Who cares what it’s called? Why’d they even have to name them? You just have to go across them.”

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Engages Blogger

I’m very proud to alert you about a new staffing acquisition. In an effort to become more timely and professional, we have brought on a staff blogger. This blogger – who was acquired through our website management firm Intimo Media – will be scouring the web on a daily basis for breaking prison education news

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Prison Education: Not Just a Desire, But a Willingness

I had a very frustrating day the other day! For several weeks the Education Department at FCI-Petersburg has been trying to get me in contact with a gentleman who recently earned his GED. He had expressed a desire to further his studies at either the career-level or college-level. But, he didn’t have any funds to pursue a higher-level education. So, they called in me. After all, I’m now their go-to guy in terms of correspondence programs and prison education.

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Providing College To Prison Inmates (Part 3)

This is the third blog post in the “Providing College To Prison Inmates Series.” This series is based upon seven “Recommendations for Policy and Practice” presented by Contardo on pages 154 through 156 of her text Providing College To Prison Inmates.

“Structure correctional education so that prisoners begin their transition while still incarcerated.” – Contardo (pg. 155)

In Providing College To Prison Inmates it is suggested that prisoners be prepared or primed so that they might continue on with college-level learning once released from prison. I wholeheartedly agree with this stance, but believe that this idea needs much more discussion.

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Excelsior College Shuts Its Doors to the Incarcerated

I’m sad to inform you that yet another giant has fallen in the realm of correspondence correctional education. Following Brigham Young University’s example, Excelsior College has discontinued all of its paper-based coursework and examinations as of September 30, 2011.

In response to one of my letters, Excelsior College noted “I regret to inform you that Excelsior College will no longer be administering credit by examination through paper & pencil format effective September 30, 2011. The only way to take an Excelsior College exam will be through a Pearson Vue Testing Center.

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Selection and Retention of Inmate Instructors

Many in the world outside of prison wouldn’t believe that talent lies behind bars. The thought of a prisoner possessing a professional doctorate, being an English major, or even managing an advocacy network would be much too taboo to contemplate.

Luckily for us, we know the truth of the matter: that there are a number of highly qualified inmates which can be put to good use in leadership positions. The question then becomes how to find them and how to maintain their interest.

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Providing College To Prison Inmates Series (Part 2)

This is the second blog post in the “Providing College To Prison Inmates Series.” This series is based upon seven ‘Recommendations for Policy and Practice’ presented by Contardo on pages 154 through 156 of her text Providing College To Prison Inmates.

“Build interagency partnerships to better address the challenges of providing correctional education.” –Contardo (pg. 155)

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