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Highlights from the Prison Education Project’s Spring Evaluation Report

The Prison Education Project (PEP) utilizes faculty volunteers and university students to provide education in 12 California correctional institutions. PEP has reached 6,000 inmates since 2011, making this initiative the most extensive volunteer-based prison education program in America. The ultimate goal of PEP is to flip the school-to-prison pipeline around, creating instead a prison-to-school pipeline

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The First Step Act: A Good First Step Indeed!

If it passes, the First Step Act will dramatically change life for thousands of inmates in America and will tackle, head-on, some of the problems that lead people to prison and keeps them there. There are many long-overdue items on the Act that includes banning the shackling of pregnant and postpartum women (was a woman

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Northwestern Prison Education Program Encourages Contemplation

Recently, we discussed the positive role liberal arts education has in prisons. Today, we take a closer look at the Northwestern Prison Education Program, which provides tuition-free liberal arts degrees to inmates in Illinois Stateville Correctional Center (SCC). Northwestern launched as an institution for higher learning in 1855. Five years prior, nine men sat down

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No “Making up for Lost Time” When a Prison Cuts Education Short

Ah, prison! That place where men and women go to realize the error of their ways and become fully rehabilitated. It’s where education is offered, training in life skills is provided, and community-minded citizens help with reintegration programs, right? What we just described is the idealized version of the American prison system. Sadly, far from

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What is the Prison Studies Project?

The Prison Studies Project (PSP) is an initiative that created a nationwide directory of higher education prison programs in the United States. The index was completed in 2008 and is updated regularly. The project was completed in partnership with the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice. According to PSP’s website, “PSP aims to

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Unexpected Benefits of Prison Education

More and more people are learning that prison education programs are instrumental in reducing crime and cutting down recidivism. It costs less to educate prisoners (both in and out of prisons, which ultimately leads to lower incarceration rates) than to house offenders in the federal prison system, making education a key tax-reduction strategy as well.

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Texas Non-Profit Helps Felons Start Their Own Businesses

The Prison Entrepreneur Program (PEP), a Texas-based non-profit formed in 2004, assists inmates convicted of felonies to prepare for life after prison by developing skills and character, finding post-release employment, and eventually making a success with their own businesses. The group’s current CEO Bryan Kelley is a program graduate. Nearly finished serving a 20-year sentence

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New Grant to Support Prison Education in New York State

The Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP) provides college degree courses for persons in upstate New York prisons. Believing that “any person can find instruction in any study,” the leaders of CPEP see this education as a fundamental part of any successful re-entry program. CPEP launched after an act of Congress and the resulting legislation ended

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Edward Sanders Proves the Necessity of Prison Education Programs

“I made a mistake when I was 17 years old, and I recognize that someone lost their life. I didn’t pull the trigger, but I was there. There’s no snapping my finger and getting them to come back. I know what death means.” That was a powerful statement Edward Sanders made during a recent lecture

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