Teach-In on Race: ‘Unlocking Learning’: Education in Prison

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.

In this presentation, Emerson Prison Initiative Director Mneesha Gellman highlights how access to education in prison interrupts social hierarchies to create second chances for people that the criminal legal system has discarded. Incarcerated learners create a new normal as they have the opportunity to present themselves as students in the classroom rather than solely as people in prison.