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Language Partners Wins Arcus Prize!

The Education Justice Project’s ESL (English as a Second Language) program, Language Partners, received the Arcus Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership on May 11, 2013. In a surprise move, the jury decided to split the inaugural prize three ways. Language Partners is honored to shared it with the Dalia Association, a micro-lending group in Palestine, and Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, based in New York City.

The awardees were recognized for their transformative leadership models; their programs are driven by the voices, needs, and authority of those directly impacted by the social harm being addressed. In the case of Language Partners, these are the peer instructors or “teaching partners,” seen below.

 

LP

One of the Teaching Partners, Joseph Mapp (center, first row), responded to news of the award with the following words:  Thank you for the opportunity to feel a sense of accomplishment and pride. Prison has the ability to beat us down daily… Because of this program, I enjoy life and literally hold onto my sanity. I am choked up so truly from the bottom of my heart. Thank you, all.

Click here for a story about the Arcus Prize, from the U of I News Service.

EJP is looking for a new webmaster.

Please contact info@educationjustice.net if you’re interested in this (nonpaying) position.

The Tempest at Danville Prison

The Tempest 04.03.13 - 03

In April 2013, the Band of Brothers presented Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a play about imprisonment, freedom, and much more. Watch this website for an upcoming link to a video of the production. 

Shakespeare 2012

Chad Rand in Our Play Jan 2012

 

Click here to view the 2012 production of “Our Play” at Danville prison. 

Q & A following the January 12, 2012 of “Our Play.

 

EJP featured in the U of I Alumni Magazine!

Click here to read this March 2013 article and see photos.

EJP’s Hugh Bishop is Danville Prison Volunteer of the Year

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Hugh Bishop coordinates EJP’s Language Partners Program, through which EJP students at Danville prison offer English as a Second Language instruction to men in the general prison population. Above, he poses with students in his fall 2012 Linguistics course.

Congratulations to Hugh Bishop and the entire Language Partners program for your recognition.

Please view this video to learn more about Language Partners. 

For a collection of our favorite recipes, please download our recipe book, “Cooking with the Language Partners.”

 

NEW! Education Justice Radio

Listen to this week’s radio show here!

Tune in each week to Education Justice Radio on WRFU 104.5 Sundays from 2-3pm.

Education Justice Radio will feature news and reports on topics related to incarceration, criminal justice, higher education, and much much more.

Winter Harvest

Our recent literary publication, Winter Harvest, is available for free from EJP. Please click here to view Education Justice Project writers reading excerpts from their essays.

Recent Publication from Language Partners 

An article collaboratively written by EJP “Teaching Partners” and “Resource Partners” has just been published in a special issue on ESL for the journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College! The article can be viewed here.

Below, a photograph of the peer English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors, incarcerated EJP students, and resource supporters from the University of Illinois. Language Partners is the only program of its sort in the United States, where incarcerated men serve as peer ESL instructors to men in the general population.

EJP Videos 

Click here for a video of EJP students discussing the impact of their incarceration upon their family members. Please note, the students requested that this video be shared so that members of the public can become more sensitive to issues relating to the impacts of incarceration upon loved ones.

 

Click here for a video of the Fall 2012 convocation at Danville Prison. (About five minutes into the video the panel moderator, Chad Rand, takes stage. You won’t want to miss his performance.)

Statistics 2012 student presentations

Shawn Spates and Rasheed Williams

Joseph Findley and Eddie Viens

Rob Garite and Bartosz Leszczysnki

James Green, Troy Jones, Richard Wilson

Kemuyah Ben Rakemeyahu and Joseph Mapp

David Gbabiri

 

Beyond Lines

Beyond Lines,  an art exhibit hosted by the University YMCA from August to October, 2012, received many visitors and wonderful press. You can visit the links below to access some of it.

YUSA Nov 2012 Member News

Click here for a news article about the art exhibit.

Click here for a review of the opening in The Daily Illini.

Click here for artists’ reflections on being part of an exhibit at the University YMCA.

Donations to the Danville art program are welcome. Please phone Mr. James Depratt at Danville prison at 446-0441, ext. 377.

EJP Awards Convocation May 2012

View some previous convocation speeches below.

William Wells

Mike Brawn

What We Do

EJP offers education programs to students incarcerated at Danville Correctional Center; hosts activities for their family members in Chicago; and produces critical scholarship about our work.

EJP Mission Statement

The mission of the Education Justice project is to build a model college-in-prison program that demonstrates the positive impacts of higher education upon incarcerated people, their families, the communities from which they come, and society as a whole.

You Can Make a Difference

Higher education in prison reduces recidivism, saves the state money, creates safer prison environments for staff and incarcerated people alike, and promotes public safety. It also improves life prospects for the families of incarcerated people and restores 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
Urbana, IL 61801

Or contact us by email at info@educationjustice.net

Why Higher Education in Prison?

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.

Ways You Can Become Involved

 

 

 

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