Blog
November 29, 2023
Reflections on the 2023 National Conference on Higher Education in Prisons (NCHEP)
With the restoration of Pell grants for incarcerated students on July 1, the 13th annual National Conference on Higher Education in Prisons (NCHEP), held November 9-11 in Atlanta, marked a turning point in the evolution and growth of the field. This NCHEP was the largest ever, selling out registration weeks in advance and with a record number of first-time attendees, including librarians and representatives from departments of corrections. Most notably, in keeping with the conference theme of “Closing the Gap,”…
October 31, 2023
Aligning the Conversation on Technology Use for Education Programs in Prisons and Jails
A Collaborative Update and Call to Action for the Education in Prisons and Jails Research Community Given recent policy changes and expanded access to postsecondary education, technology options for education programs in prisons and jails are increasing at all levels. Education technology vendors are responding to these changes with new platforms, instructional content, and devices that can be used to support education programming inside facilities. At the same time, there is a growing need for research on the use of…
October 5, 2023
Pell Restoration for People in Prison
Webinar Recording and Additional Resources
On September 29, we hosted a webinar, “Pell 101: Information for Librarians and Those Serving People in Prison,” to share information about the restoration of Pell funding for students who are incarcerated. Panelists included prison education journalist and Open Campus reporter Charlotte West, Vera Institute of Justice Associate Initiative Director Ruth Delaney, and NASFAA Education Specialist Sheila Meiman. We’re pleased to share the recording here. Below, you will also find our panelists’ responses to questions raised during the…
September 11, 2023
Building College-Community Partnerships for Reentry
New ECMC Foundation Funding to Support Higher Education After Incarceration
Higher education in prison programs are receiving significant attention in light of the restoration of Pell grants, but the provision of reentry support and continuing education post release has only recently become a focus of the field. From complex college application systems and financial aid processes to meeting basic needs, students face a range of obstacles that may prevent them from completing their degrees after incarceration. Building pathways that specifically support students in achieving their educational goals post-release will be…
April 20, 2023
Media Review Directive Model Policy
In Security and Censorship: A Comparative Analysis of State Department of Corrections Media Review Policies, we examined media review directives from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, analyzing common policies, procedures, and language across these documents. Based on this analysis, we recommend a series of changes to media review directives and related policy. We believe that the suggested changes will benefit departments of corrections (DOC) by streamlining procedures and improving communication with people who are incarcerated. The…
January 12, 2023
Preserving Their Stories: Archiving Mass Incarceration
A New NEH-Funded Project
We’re thrilled to announce that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), through its Research and Development Program, has granted funding to a new Ithaka S+R project to explore how the stories of people who are justice impacted can best be preserved and develop strategies to make these first-hand experiences of mass incarceration accessible. In partnership with the Justice Arts Coalition (JAC), “Preserving Their Stories” will explore how creative works generated by people in prison circulate beyond prison…
September 22, 2022
Better Serving Library Patrons Behind Bars
New Project to Expand Public, State, Law, Prison, and Academic Library Collaboration
Over the past several years, public, state, academic, and law libraries have increasingly sought to serve people in prison through a variety of services. Now, with a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Ithaka S+R is undertaking a planning project that will set the stage for future partnerships to develop and pilot wrap-around library services to meet the information needs of people who are currently incarcerated.
September 13, 2022
Reflections on the 2022 Correctional Education Association (CEA) Conference
As the professional association for Department of Corrections (DOC) education staff, the Correctional Education Association conference is an important opportunity for sharing and learning about the latest trends, trailblazers, and trials facing those who provide education in prisons. With the restoration of Pell grants for incarcerated college students now less than a year away, we were eager to hear how DOC education leadership and staff were responding to this major shift in the field.
September 7, 2022
Comments on the Department of Education’s Proposed Regulations for Pell Grant Restoration for Incarcerated People
Effective July 1, 2023, incarcerated people will once again be eligible to receive Pell grants to support their education, ending a 29 year ban. Below we publish Ithaka S+R’s letter to the Department of Education, outlining our concerns and providing recommendations that would help ensure that people who are incarcerated in the United States are provided the opportunity to participate in and benefit from a quality education.
August 23, 2022
Technology Access in Higher Education in Prison Programs
New Survey Launch
We are excited to announce the launch of a new survey on the landscape of technology access in higher education in prison programs. This survey is a part of Ithaka S+R’s larger work on access to information for incarcerated students and the role of media review in higher education in prisons. While early research on the expansion of educational opportunities in prisons is positive, existing research suggests that educational and skills-based inequities hinder system impacted learners.
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June 14, 2022
Looking Forward to ALA Annual 2022
A Banner Year for Librarians Serving Incarcerated Patrons
The American Library Association (ALA) will be holding its annual conference next week (June 23-28) in Washington DC, in person for the first time since 2019. The conference theme, “together again,” points to the critical importance of building and sustaining community, and I am especially excited to see that the conference schedule has multiple sessions that will provide opportunities for librarians who serve incarcerated people to connect and learn. Even in an increasingly censorius national…
February 16, 2022
Understanding Educational Space Needs in Prisons
New Project Announcement
Across higher education, classrooms and study commons have been reimagined to foster student engagement and learning. But for higher education in prison programs, it can prove challenging to find spaces optimized for education, much less space designed to support their educational needs. Access—or the lack of access—to classrooms, libraries, and scientific and computer labs, can play determining roles in the quality of higher education programming. With many competing demands for space, Departments of Corrections (DOC) may be inclined to look…
January 5, 2022
Providing Library Services for Higher Education in Prison
An Interview with Jessica Licklider and Jeannie Colson
In a previous blog post I interviewed Jeanie Austin of the San Francisco Public Library about their new book on providing library services to incarcerated people. With the restoration of Pell funding for incarcerated students set to take place in 2023, the field of higher education in prison (HEP) is currently grappling with how to prepare for this long-awaited expansion of funding and opportunity, and academic libraries that wish to serve this student group must likewise prepare to meet…
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December 7, 2021
Providing Library Services to the Incarcerated
An Interview with Jeanie Austin on Their New Book
Providing library services to people held in prisons and jails can be a challenging endeavor. Those who take on this work will need to navigate complex, and not always welcoming, corrections’ bureaucracies and face censorship or be themselves co-opted into censoring in ways that are antithetical to the ethical tenets of librarianship. Yet the information needs among incarcerated and detained people are immense given their limited access to the internet or other technologies…
October 5, 2021
Censorship in Prisons
Recording from the San Francisco Public Library's Banned Books Event Now Available
Last week was Banned Books Week, an annual event meant to celebrate the freedom to read and draw attention to censorship and other threats to free expression. As a report by the free expression advocacy group PEN America points out, America’s prisons are the locus of the country’s largest and most extensive censorship regime. While the free and unencumbered access to literature is a challenge for all incarcerated…
March 23, 2021
Teaching with Primary Sources: Pre-Pandemic Lessons for Post-COVID Futures
The second iteration in Ithaka S+R’s Teaching Support Services project investigates the teaching practices and support needs of instructors who work with primary source materials. Today we are excited to publish the project’s capstone report. Still in the pandemic but beginning to glimpse life on the other side, now is an opportune time to begin to envision not just the future, but the many potential futures…
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March 15, 2021
Post-NCHEP Reflection
The Need for Digital Literacy in a Digitally-Connected World
The National Conference on Higher Education in Prison (NCHEP) concluded earlier this month. Due to the pandemic, this annual meeting of practitioners, students, and advocates moved online for the first time, and, while the in-person experience of community building is not easy to duplicate remotely, the increased opportunity for engagement and access certainly aligned with this year’s conference theme, “Amplifying Access.” With its assembly of breakout sessions, plenaries, and chat-boxes, the virtualized conference was better able to prioritize…
January 28, 2021
Convening the Cohort
Teaching with Digital Cultural Heritage Materials in the Pandemic
Last summer we announced a Mellon funded project to study how higher education instructors are adapting their practices of teaching with cultural heritage materials during the pandemic. In this post we share how our project is developing and the issues we are tracking as our research gets underway. Why are we doing this project? We remain in a similarly unprecedented landscape six months later, as the COVID-19 virus remains a terrible threat. Technology has allowed certain types of activities…
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October 19, 2020
Increasing Access to Quality Educational Resources to Support Higher Education in Prison
New Project Announcement
We are excited to announce a new project funded by Ascendium Education Group that will allow us to expand our current work on increasing access to quality educational resources for higher education in prison (HEP) programs. This grant will support both Ithaka S+R’s growing research focus in the field as well as JSTOR Labs’ innovative work on increasing access to academic resources for incarcerated students. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it abundantly clear that both HEP programs and…
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August 17, 2020
Teaching with Cultural Heritage Online During the Pandemic
New Mellon-Funded Project
Today we are excited to announce a new project funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will explore how teaching and learning with cultural heritage collections and materials is evolving in response to the pandemic. Instructors who seek to use cultural heritage objects from museums, archives, and special collections face unique challenges when adapting to remote teaching. What is needed is deeper understanding of, and better support for these instructors in this current moment. This…
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