TEACHING
The Prison Studies Project, in collaboration with Boston University’s Prison Education Program and the MA Department of Correction, brings together students from Harvard and students in prison. Each is part of a curriculum for college credit; classes focus on urban sociology, race, ethics, and transformative learning.
RESEARCH
The growth of America’s prison and jail populations over the last 35 years creates an array of new challenges for public policy and provokes a variety of questions about the quality of American democracy and citizenship. The Prison Studies Project conducts research to address these challenges and questions.
OUTREACH
The Prison Studies Project aims to raise public awareness about incarceration in America, promote a perspective on criminal punishment that emphasizes its connection to racial, class and other socioeconomic disadvantages, and inject into the public conversation a discussion of policy alternatives.
Passport to the Future Accessing Higher Education in an Era of Mass Incarceration
A documentary film exploring barriers to college admissions for applicants with criminal records. While mass incarceration is increasingly being recognized as the greatest civil rights issue of our time, the barriers to higher education have remained a hidden and overlooked consequence to rebuilding lives after prison. The video, Passport To The Future, was produced by [...]The Central Park Five: Film Screening & Discussion
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 5:30 PM Wasserstein Hall, Room 2036, Harvard Law School 1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA Co-sponsored by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute DOCUMENTARY PRODUCED, WRITTEN, AND DIRECTED BY KEN BURNS || DAVID McMAHON || SARAH BURNS THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE SYNOPSIS In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were [...]The House I Live In: Film Screening & Discussion
Monday, February 11, 2013 at 7:00 pm Hibernian Hall 184 Dudley St., Boston, MA Co-sponsors: ACLU of MA, Blackstonian, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), National Lawyers Guild (Mass. Chapter), New England Area Conference of the NAACP (NEAC),The Prison Studies Project THE HOUSE I LIVE IN || A film by Eugene Jarecki Synopsis As America remains embroiled in conflict overseas, [...]Tennessee Higher Education Initiative
THE Initiative offers on-site, college courses for credit to the incarcerated leading to the possible attainment of an associates’ degree. Credits earned from these courses are recognized and transferable to any Tennessee Board of Regents College or University, as well as certain private and public colleges and universities outside of Tennessee in the Southeastern region (i.e. SACS schools). Upon release, THE Initiative encourages and helps formerly incarcerated students continue their academic pursuits...(read more)National Directory of Prison Education Programs
