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tag: Higher education in prisons

Past Event
March 12, 2020

Unbarring Access to Higher Education in Prison

Danielle Cooper and Meagan Wilson at SXSW EDU

This event has been cancelled. On Thursday, March 12, from 2:00-3:00 pm, Danielle Cooper and Meagan Wilson will be discussing “Unbarring Access to Higher Education in Prison” as part of a panel at SXSW EDU in Austin, Texas. They will be joined on the panel by Terrell Blount (Laughing Gull Foundation) and Jody Lewen (Prison University Project). For more information about the conference, please see the SXSW EDU website. About the panel Access to higher education in prison has…
Past Event
November 16, 2019

Danielle Cooper and Kurtis Tanaka at the National Conference on Higher Education in Prison

On Saturday, November 16, ITHAKA is hosting a breakfast session  to share an update on “Providing Offline Access to High-Quality Library Resources in Prisons”at the 2019 National Conference on Higher Education in Prison in St. Louis, Missouri. With support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in 2019 ITHAKA launched an initiative to help improve higher education in prison and reduce barriers for student research. In this session, Danielle Cooper and Kurtis Tanaka will provide an update on the project’s research…
Blog Post
October 15, 2019

Prisons, the Higher Ed Market, and Second Chance Pell

Both houses of Congress are debating a set of bills to update portions of the Higher Education Act, the key federal postsecondary education law. The long-overdue refresh has been held up by disagreements over levels of funding, accountability, and how to handle sex discrimination under Title IX, among other issues.  Whenever the HEA finally does come up for reauthorization, the move to restore Pell grants to the incarcerated is expected to make the final draft. Legislators who care about improving…
Past Event
November 16, 2019

Towards a Higher Education in Prison Research Infrastructure

Rayane Alamuddin and Meagan Wilson Host Meeting at the 2019 National Conference on Higher Education in Prison

On Saturday, November 16, from 1:00 – 2:00 pm, Rayane Alamuddin and Meagan Wilson are hosting “Towards a Higher Education in Prison Research Infrastructure,” at the 2019 National Conference on Higher Education in Prison in St. Louis, Missouri. For more information, please see the conference website. About the meeting The lack of an adequate research infrastructure surrounding postsecondary prison programming greatly limits our ability to facilitate empirical research evaluating the quality of higher education available to incarcerated students.
Blog Post
May 30, 2019

Mass Incarceration, Second Chance Pell, and the State of Postsecondary Education in Prison

Last week, the US Department of Education announced an expansion of its 2015 experimental initiative that provides federal Pell Funding to eligible incarcerated students. The announcement builds off other 2019 bipartisan policy initiatives — at both the federal and state levels — that aim to increase postsecondary access for the 1.5 million of adults currently held in American prisons. Given that reentry statistics suggest more than 95 percent of incarcerated adults will eventually be released, and…
Research Report
May 30, 2019

Unbarring Access

A Landscape Review of Postsecondary Education in Prison and Its Pedagogical Supports

Postsecondary education in US prisons is a growing topic in both academic and political circles. While much of the discourse surrounding higher education more broadly focuses on students’ educational and employment outcomes, the conversation around postsecondary education in prisons often centers on the societal benefits of this programming, with a strong focus on reduced recidivism rates – the rates with which formerly incarcerated individuals engage in criminal acts that result in their re-arrest, re-conviction, or re-incarceration. With 1.5 million people…
Past Event
April 27, 2019

Opportunities, Threats, Disruptions, or Challenges Facing Prison Higher Education

Catharine Bond Hill Presents at Bennington College Conference

On Saturday, April 27, Catharine Bond Hill is presenting on “Opportunities, Threats, Disruptions, or Challenges Facing Prison Higher Education” as part of a panel discussion at Bennington College’s Conference on Freeing the Mind and Building a Future: The Role and Future of the Liberal Arts in Prison Education. The panel will run from 11:00 am – 12:30 pm. For more information, and to register for this free conference, please visit the conference website.