tag: Higher education in prisons
Past Event
December 13, 2022
Inspiration, Knowledge and Curiosity While Incarcerated
On Tuesday, December 13 at 7:00 – 8:30 pm, Ithaka S+R’s Kurtis Tanaka will participate in a San Francisco Public Library panel on “Inspiration, Knowledge and Curiosity While Incarcerated.” Panelists will share best practices and insights from their own endeavors and will highlight the role of information access in maintaining inspiration in carceral contexts. Incarceration does not foreclose peoples’ ability to think, dream, create, envision, and learn individually and collectively. Join facilitators working to ensure access to the resources…
Blog Post
October 24, 2022
Reflections on NCHEP 2022
National Conference on Higher Education in Prisons
Organized by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prisons, the 12th National Conference on Higher Education in Prisons brought together educators, administrators, and current and former students of higher education in prison (HEP) programs to share information about challenges, trends, and changes in the HEP landscape. The theme for this year’s conference was “What’s Next?” and we were eager to learn what educators and administrators were focusing on and preparing for in the proposed legislation.
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
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…
Past Event
June 24, 2022
Library Services to the Justice Involved (LSJI) Roundtable
ITHAKA is proud to be sponsoring the Library Services to the Justice Involved Roundtable at the ALA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. When: Friday, June 24, 2022 at 10:30am – 11:30am Where: Washington Convention Center, 152B Kurtis Tanaka (Ithaka S+R), Stacy Burnett (JSTOR Labs), and Anne Ray (Reveal Digital) will be in attendance. About the roundtable:…
Past Event
June 23, 2022
Ithaka S+R at ALA
Meet up with Nicole Betancourt, Melissa Blankstein, and Kurtis Tanaka
If you are headed to the ALA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, we encourage you to meet up with the Ithaka S+R staff who will be in attendance: Nicole Betancourt, Survey and Research Operations Analyst, runs our local surveys program. Connect with her on Twitter or via email if you would like to reach out about running a survey of your faculty or students in the 2022/23 academic year.
Blog Post
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…
Blog Post
January 18, 2022
Turning on the TAP
Restoring Tuition Assistance for Incarcerated Students in New York
In her first State of the State address since taking office, New York Governor Kathy Hochul outlined an agenda that included repealing the 27-year ban on college tuition assistance, also known as TAP, for incarcerated students. In 1995, when the ban was first instituted, incarcerated students accounted for less than 1 percent of TAP funding state-wide. The ban dovetailed with the 1994 Crime Bill’s elimination of federal Pell grants for incarcerated students and…
Blog Post
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…
Blog Post
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…
Past Event
November 11, 2021
Kurtis Tanaka at the 2021 National Conference on Higher Education in Prison (NCHEP)
Kurtis Tanaka is presenting at two sessions during the 2021 National Conference on Higher Education in Prison (NCHEP). The conference will take place from November 11-14. An Untapped Resource: Why and How to Partner with Your Institutional Library Speakers: Rebecca J. Bott, Education Justice Project; Josh Honn, Northwestern Prison Education Program; Kurtis Tanaka, Ithaka S+R Higher education in prison programs routinely struggle to provide incarcerated students with timely, equitable access to library materials and services. This meeting will…
Past Event
October 1, 2021
Kurtis Tanaka at San Francisco Public Library’s Banned Books Week
On Friday Oct 1, Kurtis Tanaka will present during San Francisco Public Library’ Banned Books Week on preliminary findings on technology, media review policy, prison censorship and self-censorship. For more information, please visit this site and read the abstract below: Abstract Kurtis Tanaka, of Ithaka S+R, presents preliminary findings from an ongoing research project on technology, media review policy, prison censorship and self-censorship. A key selling point of many technologies in the prison space is the ability to monitor…
Blog Post
July 16, 2021
Participate in Advancing Higher Education in Prison Research
Visit Ithaka S+R’s New Online Forum
Higher education in prison programming has entered a period of great opportunity and promise. In December 2020, the nation lifted a 26-year ban on need-based Pell Grants to incarcerated undergraduates. Over the next several years, the restoration of this federal funding stream will propel the expansion of college programming to many of the estimated half million Pell-eligible incarcerated adult learners. However, nuts-and-bolts questions persist, such as how best to scale high-quality educational programming…
Blog Post
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…
Past Event
April 13, 2021
Oya Y. Rieger, Danielle Cooper, and Kurtis Tanaka at ACRL 2021
Oya Y. Rieger, Danielle Cooper, and Kurtis Tanaka will present on-demand programs during the 2021 ACRL Virtual Conference. For more information on their individual sessions, please visit this link. Oya Y. Rieger, Danielle Cooper will discuss the impacts of Big Deal cancellations on patrons. Please see the abstract below: “No deal, no problem? The Impacts of Big Deal Cancellations on Patrons” Libraries are increasingly questioning the value of their Big Deal subscriptions, leading to a number of prominent cancellations…
Blog Post
March 2, 2021
Amplifying Equity in Education: 2021 NCHEP
With the momentum of Pell restoration tempered by the continued challenges of distance-learning during the pandemic, this week marks the start of 2021’s annual National Conference on Higher Education in Prison (NCHEP). NCHEP’s guiding theme of educational equity spans five days and over 60 presentations, covering a wide range of topics, from abolitionist teaching to the power of collaborative partnerships. The concerns and strategies of this national cohort…
Past Event
March 3, 2021
Kurtis Tanaka at 2021 Conference on Higher Education in Prison (NCHEP)
Kurtis Tanaka will be presenting more on his research on higher education in prison on March 3 and March 5 at 2021 Conference on Higher Education in Prison. For more information on the individual sessions, please see below. Registration information is available here. Paper: Amplifying Technological Equity Time: Wednesday, March 3, 1-2pm EST. Abstract: This paper will share research on the technology and information supports available to incarcerated students and their instructors. By sharing this research,…