Abstract
This article explores what religious frameworks and institutions have to contribute to college-in-prison. We first provide an historical overview of higher education programs in American prisons. Then, we limn the role religion can play in motivating people to commit themselves to educating incarcerated people. Because this work is so thorny, we document some of the generic challenges programs must face and show how religious languages can be an asset in navigating these challenges. Next, we present the pedagogical practices and educational philosophies expressed among the programs in our study. We conclude with some broader reflections about teaching incarcerated people, and, after wrestling with objections, we encourage our colleagues in religious studies—those with faith commitments as well as those without them—to get involved.
Highlights
The exponential growth of the U.S prison population over the past half-century is widely recognized as a moral crisis
While many volunteer-run education programs in prisons are staffed by religious volunteers from churches, ministries, and other non-profits, our study focuses on education programs offered by either formerly or currently religiously-affiliated institutions of higher education
Administrators for Indiana Women’s Prison Higher Education Program, who expressly disavow any religious motivation for their program, describe prison education as a means for effecting social change: “We believe that a liberal arts education can be transformative for men and women in prison in ways that are beneficial to them, and to their families and to the communities of which they are a part—including their prison and college communities.”
Summary
The exponential growth of the U.S prison population over the past half-century is widely recognized as a moral crisis. Though we hide them away, the 2.3 million men and women locked up in our prisons, jails, and immigrant detention centers represent, in a sense, only the most visible segment of the targeted population As chaplains and as religious volunteers, free people with faith commitments have been actively engaged with incarcerated people for as long as there have been prisons. We write this essay as a group of critically committed prison educators with two goals in mind: to restore the missing religion into the prison education narrative and to encourage our colleagues—especially those who work at institutions with religious affiliations—to enlist their schools to get involved in this delicate but vital work
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