Education Justice Project

College-in-prison programs reduce recidivism, improve life prospects for the families of incarcerated people, create safer prison environments, and restore hope. All contributions, from the smallest to the largest, will help.

Please send your donations to:
Education Justice Project
University of Illinois
805 W. Pennsylvania Ave. MC-057
IPRH Building
Urbana, IL 61801

Feb 10th, 5-7:00 pm at Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities at 805 W. Pennsylvania Ave, in Urbana, there will be a panel on “Reflections on Prison Teaching”, in the 1st floor conference room. Here’s the flyer for the event.

Applications for academic year 2010-11 are due March 1st, 5:00pm at EJP’s office at 805 W. Pennsylvania Ave, in Urbana:

• Prospective course instructors need to submit a letter of application and a CV
• Prospective tutors need to submit a Tutor Application Form and CV
• Prospective reading group facilitators need to submit an Application and CV

All prospective instructors are encouraged to be in touch with current or recent EJP academic staff to learn more about the work. Or, contact Rebecca Ginsburg (EJP Director) at rginsbur [at] illinois, or (for tutors) Rachel Rasmussen, rcras1958 [at] yahoo.

Other upcoming events appear in our public calendar, which is also viewable here.
Unless otherwise noted, all events take place at 805 W. Pennsylvania Ave, in Urbana.

Research is clear. College-in-prison programs reduce arrest, conviction, and reincarceration rates among released prisoners. Evidence has also linked the presence of college-in-prison programs to fewer disciplinary incidents within prison, finding that such programs produce safer environments for prisoners and staff alike. College-prison programs also have benefits for inmates’ families and, hence, their communities. The strongest predictor of whether a given person will attend college is whether her or his parents did. When an incarcerated person receives a college education, whether or not s/he is eventually released, his or her children are more likely to pursue their own educations. In spite of these significant benefits, there has been a precipitous drop in college-in-prison programs around the country. There were over seven hundred degree-granting programs at their height, in the early 1990s. In 1994 the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act eliminated the use of Pell Grants for prisoners, and most prison college programs closed, including Illinois’ BA-granting programs. Bachelor degrees have not been offered in Illinois prisons since 2002.

Advisory Board

• Jorge Chapa, Director, Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society
• Violet Harris, Associate Director, College of Education
• Rob Scott, PhD Candidate, Education Policy Studies
• Rebecca Ginsburg, Director, EJP
• William Sullivan, Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture
• Dede Ruggles, Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture
• James Kilgore, Research Associate, Center for African Studies
• Julian Rappaport, Profesor Emeritus, Department of Psychology

We welcome your interest, whether you’d like to serve on one of EJP’s committees, volunteer as a tutor, teach a class in prison, or support our work with a donation. Please click on “Contact EJP” at the top of this page and fill out the form. Someone will contact you.