Education Behind the Wall


Book Description

"This edited volume seeks to address some of the major issues for faculty teaching college classes to incarcerated students. It is composed of a series of case studies showcasing the strengths and challenges of teaching in prison as well as honest reflection on the reality of education in a constrained environment"--




Critical Perspectives on Teaching in Prison


Book Description

This volume makes a case for engaging critical approaches for teaching adults in prison higher education (or “college-in-prison”) programs. This book not only contextualizes pedagogy within the specialized and growing niche of prison instruction, but also addresses prison abolition, reentry, and educational equity. Chapters are written by prison instructors, currently incarcerated students, and formerly incarcerated students, providing a variety of perspectives on the many roadblocks and ambitions of teaching and learning in carceral settings. All unapologetic advocates of increasing access to higher education for people in prison, contributors discuss the high stakes of teaching incarcerated individuals and address the dynamics, conditions, and challenges of doing such work. The type of instruction that contributors advocate is transferable beyond prisons to traditional campus settings. Hence, the lessons of this volume will not only support readers in becoming more thoughtful prison educators and program administrators, but also in becoming better teachers who can employ critical, democratic pedagogy in a range of contexts.




Higher Education Accessibility Behind and Beyond Prison Walls


Book Description

Numerous studies indicate that completing a college degree reduces an individual’s likelihood of recidivating. However, there is little research available to inform best practices for running college programs inside jails or prisons or supporting returning citizens who want to complete a college degree. Higher Education Accessibility Behind and Beyond Prison Walls examines program development and pedagogical techniques in the area of higher education for students who are currently incarcerated or completing a degree post-incarceration. Drawing on the experiences of program administrators and professors from across the country, it offers best practices for (1) developing, running, and teaching in college programs offered inside jails and prisons and (2) providing adequate support to returning citizens who wish to complete a college degree. This book is intended to be a resource for college administrators, staff, and professors running or teaching in programs inside jails or prisons or supporting returning citizens on traditional college campuses.




Education Behind the Wall


Book Description

"This edited volume seeks to address some of the major issues for faculty teaching college classes to incarcerated students. It is composed of a series of case studies showcasing the strengths and challenges of teaching in prison as well as honest reflection on the reality of education in a constrained environment"--




College in Prison


Book Description

Over the years, American colleges and universities have made various efforts to provide prisoners with access to education. However, few of these outreach programs presume that incarcerated men and women can rise to the challenge of a truly rigorous college curriculum. The Bard Prison Initiative is different. College in Prison chronicles how, since 2001, Bard College has provided hundreds of incarcerated men and women across the country access to a high-quality liberal arts education. Earning degrees in subjects ranging from Mandarin to advanced mathematics, graduates have, upon release, gone on to rewarding careers and elite graduate and professional programs. Yet this is more than just a story of exceptional individuals triumphing against the odds. It is a study in how the liberal arts can alter the landscape of some of our most important public institutions giving people from all walks of life a chance to enrich their minds and expand their opportunities. Drawing on fifteen years of experience as a director of and teacher within the Bard Prison Initiative, Daniel Karpowitz tells the story of BPI’s development from a small pilot project to a nationwide network. At the same time, he recounts dramatic scenes from in and around college-in-prison classrooms pinpointing the contested meanings that emerge in moments of highly-charged reading, writing, and public speaking. Through examining the transformative encounter between two characteristically American institutions—the undergraduate college and the modern penitentiary—College in Prison makes a powerful case for why liberal arts education is still vital to the future of democracy in the United States.




STEM Education in US Prisons


Book Description

Renewal of higher-education programs in US prisons creates a need for science education. This is the first book to address STEM education in prisons in the United States. It calls on activist science teachers to develop innovative ways to teach in challenging carceral settings. Over the last fifty years, science education and prison education have moved in different directions, one expanding and the other contracting. This book brings these educational endeavors into cooperative engagement. Democratic citizenship opens opportunities for all people, irrespective of civil status, to study science. The book presents student narratives and case studies emphasizing the achievements of STEM education behind prison walls. STEM education equity can help address the deep social inequities that mass incarceration creates and magnifies. Contributors are: Cassandra Barrett, Andrew Bell, George Bogner, Adrian Borealis, Drew Bush, Kelli Bush, Sandy Chang, Kelle Dhein, Amalia Handler, Steven Hart, Steven Henderson, Tiffany Hensley-McBain, Paul Kazelis, Joe Lockard, Edward Mei, Tsafrir Mor, Rob Scott, Laura Taylor, Joslyn Rose Trivett and Emily Webb.




Higher Education and the Carceral State


Book Description

Higher Education and the Carceral State: Transforming Together explores the diversity of ways in which university faculty and students are intervening in the system of mass incarceration through the development of transformative arts and educational programs for students in correctional institutions. Demonstrating the ways that higher education can intervene in and disrupt the deeply traumatic experience of incarceration and shift the embedded social-emotional cycles that lead to recidivism, this book is both inspiration and guide for those seeking to create and sustain programs as well as to educate students about the types of programs universities bring to prisons. From arts workshops and educational courses to degree-granting programs, individuals and communities across multiple disciplines in higher education are actively breaking the cycle of shame and division in mass incarceration through direct engagement. This book explores the inspiring, innovative, and changemaking initiatives in carceral spaces - from arts workshops and educational courses to degree granting programs - through the lens of faculty, artists, scholars, students, and administrators. Readers will learn the diverse ways in which these interventions and partnerships can take shape and the life changing impacts that they have on all those involved, in particular students who are incarcerated. The book includes authors with lived experience of incarceration throughout. Section I highlights the voices of students who are currently or formerly incarcerated, while Section II addresses diverse collaborations through and across systems of corrections and education. Section III features the voices of teaching artists, while Section IV includes those that start and lead these programs, offering roadmaps for others interested in engaging in this transformative work.




Unlocking Learning


Book Description

"How can people involved in carceral interventions learn from work in carceral settings outside the United States? This volume addresses this question by gathering international perspectives to the field of education in prison that could inform carceral interventions elsewhere, including in the United States"--




Prison Pedagogies


Book Description

In a time of increasing mass incarceration, US prisons and jails are becoming a major source of literary production. Prisoners write for themselves, fellow prisoners, family members, and teachers. However, too few write for college credit. In the dearth of well-organized higher education in US prisons, noncredit programs established by colleges and universities have served as a leading means of informal learning in these settings. Thousands of teachers have entered prisons, many teaching writing or relying on writing practices when teaching other subjects. Yet these teachers have few pedagogical resources. This groundbreaking collection of essays provides such a resource and establishes a framework upon which to develop prison writing programs. Prison Pedagogies does not champion any one prescriptive approach to writing education but instead recognizes a wide range of possibilities. Essay subjects include working-class consciousness and prison education; community and literature writing at different security levels in prisons; organized writing classes in jails and juvenile halls; cultural resistance through writing education; prison newspapers and writing archives as pedagogical resources; dialogical approaches to teaching prison writing classes; and more. The contributors within this volume share a belief that writing represents a form of intellectual and expressive self-development in prison, one whose pursuit has transformative potential.




College for Convicts


Book Description

The United States accounts for 5 percent of the world's population, yet incarcerates about 25 percent of the world's prisoners. Examining a wealth of studies by researchers and correctional professionals, and the experience of educators, this book shows recidivism rates drop in direct correlation with the amount of education prisoners receive, and the rate drops dramatically with each additional level of education attained. Presenting a workable solution to America's mass incarceration and recidivism problems, this book demonstrates that great fiscal benefits arise when modest sums are spent educating prisoners. Educating prisoners brings a reduction in crime and social disruption, reduced domestic spending and a rise in quality of life. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.