Unlocking Learning: International Perspectives on Education in Prison (Brandeis Series in Law and Society)

Contributors from many countries share their insights about effective educational programs for people in prison and show what the United States can learn from the models and struggles beyond its borders.

Countries around the world have disparate experiences with education in prison. For decades, the United States has been locked in a pattern of exceptionally high mass incarceration. Though education has proven to be an impactful intervention, its role and the level of support it receives vary widely. As a result, effective opportunities for incarcerated people to reroute their lives during and after incarceration remain diffuse and inefficient. This volume highlights unique contributions from the field of education in prison globally. In this volume, academics and practitioners highlight new approaches and interesting findings from carceral interventions across twelve countries. From a college degree-granting program in Mexico to educational best practices in Norway and Belgium that support successful reentry, innovations in education are being developed in prison spaces around the world. As contributors from many countries share their insights about providing effective educational programs to incarcerated people, the United States can learn from the models and struggles beyond its borders.

Justin McDevitt is the director of the Women’s College Partnership, a collaboration between the Notre Dame Programs for Education in Prison at the University of Notre Dame, Marian University, and the Bard Prison Initiative. He also served as assistant director for alumni affairs and reentry for the Moreau College Initiative, an NDPEP program run in partnership with Holy Cross College. He is the cofounder and executive director of Life Outside, a not-for-profit reentry organization based in South Bend, Indiana. 

Mneesha Gellman is the founder and director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, which brings an Emerson College bachelor’s degree pathway to incarcerated students at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord. Gellman is an associate professor of political science at the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College.