Schedule for the EJP Higher Education in Prison Symposium
October 8-10, 2010
Friday, October 8
2:00pm Opening Event at the IPRH
Introduction to the current state of the Education Justice Project (EJP) including comments from EJP alumni, and orientation to the evening at Danville Correctional Center. Hosted at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH).
3:30pm Carpool from IPRH to the Danville Correctional Center
This event was an Open House in which college-in-prison organizers from around the country came to the Danville Correctional Center to observe EJP classes, and meet EJP students.
5:00pm EJP Classes in Action
Participants sat in on University of Illinois courses being taught as part of the Fall 2010 Semester at the Danville Correctional Center. Classes ended at 7:50PM, and the carpool returned to the hotel where there were light refreshments and discussion in the lobby around 9:00PM.
Saturday, October 9
9:00am What Works & What’s Needed
This session focused on means by which college-in-prison programs achieve their goals. It also provided some orientation for the overall symposium aim of comparing and sharing different strategies by which college-in-prison programs succeed. Included in the question “what works?” was an interrogation of what is meant by the term “works”. Moderator: Bill Sullivan
- Aileen Baumgartner (Marymount Manhattan) – The college program at Bedford Hills
- Tony Zaragoza (Evergreen) – Mixed college classes at juvenile detention centers
- Kyes Stevens (Auburn) – Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project
10:30am Comparing Strategies for Action
This session paralleled the 9am session in many ways, although with an emphasis on work that is necessary outside the prison walls. That is: organizing on college campuses and in the broader community. Moderator: Tracy Dace
- Lori Pompa (Temple) – Collaborative work on the inside and outside in The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program℠
- Rebecca Ginsburg (Illinois) – Family and community engagement
- Jody Lewen (Patten) – Higher Education in San Quentin
LUNCH
1:00pm Funding College-in-Prison
Several brief presentations on one of the biggest challenges facing college-in-prison. There are low-funding models and high-budget models. There was also a discussion on the bill to re-instate Pell Grants for incarcerated adults. Moderator: Dede Fairchild-Ruggles
- Kenneth Parker & Mary Gould (St. Louis University) – Funding strategies and individual Pell Grants
- Mark Krumholz (UC Santa Cruz) – Community service funds from NSF grants
- Johanna Foster (Drew) – Private-public partnership in The College Consortium
- Glenn Martin (Fortune Society) – A bill to bring back the Pell Grant
3:00pm Evaluating Impacts of Higher Education in Prison
What lenses do we use to evaluate the effectiveness of college in prison? What happens after graduation, after release? What criteria are appropriate? This panel will look at the multiplicity of evaluative perspectives. Moderator: James Kilgore.
- Carol Minugh (Evergreen) – What happens after the Evergreen Gateways project
- Patricia Aceves (St. Cloud) – Tracking the consequences of higher ed in MN prisons
- Kaia Stern (Harvard) – A report from the Prison Studies Project
6:00pm Dinner and Reception
Food and fellowship at the home of EJP Director Rebecca Ginsburg.
Sunday, October 10
9:00am Inter-Institutional Collaboration
In the construction of higher education in correctional facilities, one of the nebulous regions of work is inter-institutional collaboration. The recent formation of several projects in New York and New Jersey was a point of departure for discussing the big issues of inter-institutional coordination in a shifting legislative landscape. Moderator: Rob Scott
- Andrew Nurkin (Princeton) – The PACE Center and Princeton’s Prison Teaching Initiative
- Kirsten Coe (Cornell) – Green initiatives in prison education
- Margaret Atkins (Drew) – Drew’s PREP program and correctional legislation
10:30am Final Discussion
Discussion of collaboration and review of the Preliminary Draft of the Proceedings. This was a time to follow-up on publication proposals. It was also a time for reflection on issues which came up in the course of the symposium before the symposium participants begin to disperse. Moderator: Rebecca Ginsburg
- Carol Estes (University Beyond Bars) – Article in Yes! magazine & her work
- Kaia Stern (Harvard) – National Directory of Higher Education in Prison
- EJP Proceedings Committee (Illinois) – Minutes, movies, and moving forward
LUNCH
ADJOURNMENT
