4 Contested Space: Higher Education Programming in Prisons

Abstract

Abstract: While academic freedom is considered a birthright in higher education, the current hysteria surrounding teaching critical race theory in K–12 schools and at universities demonstrates an ongoing resistance to teaching theories that deconstruct and challenge white dominant norms. In prison education spaces, where censorship is common, tailoring education to the needs of those in power in prisons is wrought with ethical grievances. As federal funding for incarcerated students increases, how should higher education institutions navigate topics such as race and racism, when this content is challenged by prison officials? This article explores conceptually the role that higher education programming should have in prison spaces and discusses what is at stake when censorship of race and racism are not actively challenged. A framework is employed, through Ladson-Billings work, that names the ways in which an accrued educational debt is owed to incarcerated students of color that can begin to be repaid through student-centered higher education in prison programming. Additionally, the response of a college in prison organization when faced with prison censorship is highlighted as a path forward to engaging and responding to a growing anti-CRT movement, intended to obscure history and the inequity that people of color face in the United States. Without interrogating the role of college in prison programs, universities without careful consideration of how to address these racialized censorship issues can become a part of the repressive institution that is our current carceral state.