“It makes me feel like I’m not alone,” says Ricardo Guzman, who used a copy of EJP’s A New Path: A Guide to the Challenges & Opportunities After Deportation to prepare for his release from prison and deportation to Mexico. “Other people went through this. They made it. I can also make it.” Education Justice Project…
This year more than ever, EJP recognizes the linkages between incarceration in the United States and the criminalization of immigrants, particularly those from Mexico. Some EJP students, after serving a long sentence in prison, have been deported. Some of them came to the United States seeking a better future like previous generations of immigrants, and…
We wanted to disseminate an executive summary from a research luncheon held at this year’s National Conference on Higher Education in Prison (NCHEP). Several current and former EJP members participated in the discussion including Ashton Klekamp, Rob Scott, Paméla Cappas-Toro, and Mollie Hosmer-Dillard. Erin Castro (pictured here), former EJP instructor who co-founded the University of…
EJP was invited to participate in a legislative subject matter hearing held on Tuesday (5/6) on Credit for Change, a statewide campaign aimed at repealing the state’s so-called “Truth-in-Sentencing” laws that have led to thousands of people serving long sentences in Illinois prisons. EJP’s Policy Discussion Group at Danville Correctional Center has been studying this…
It’s the time of the year when EJP reviews applications from individuals hoping to join our program at Danville Correctional Center. Every spring, EJP starts a new admissions cycle. We typically accept approximately 20 incoming students, with notices of acceptance going out in May. It can feel life-changing to some individuals when, after pursuing their…
The Education Justice Project (EJP) has made the commitment to apply to become a center at the University of Illinois. This decision comes after a multi-year process involving our largest external funder, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which awarded EJP a $1 million grant in 2017 and most recently renewed the grant for additional 36…
EJP is thrilled to welcome Shaelyn Smith as our new Academic Director! In this role, Shaelyn will lead all our college-in-prison programming. Shaelyn is familiar with the obstacles and rewards of running a higher education program in a prison. She has spent the last eight years working with the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project (APAEP),…
An interesting and timely EJP course, Latin American Studies 395: Latin American Insurgencies, is being taught this spring at Danville prison by instructor Liliana Lule. The course studies uprisings in Latin America from pre/colonial era to the present, with the goal of understanding how historical events influence contemporary examples of resistance. “Classes like this one…
Growing up with system-impacted family members, Jessica Vargas was familiar with the effects of incarceration early on. Her experience drove her to get involved with EJP’s Prison-to-Gown Pathway (PGP) program, where she conducted outreach to justice-impacted students on the Illinois campus and connected them with resources. Jessica is from Humboldt Park, a Puerto Rican neighborhood…
As a member of the Education Justice Project’s (EJP) Social Media Team, Natalie Cline (Advertising, Class of 2025) has gained hands-on experience and worked for an organization whose mission she believes in. In the two years since she started, Natalie has helped nearly double the number of followers on EJP’s social media platforms. EJP has…
This holiday season, we are thrilled to announce we have selected several recipients of the Education Justice Project Scholarship! Every year, EJP offers several scholarships to those formerly incarcerated and those impacted by the criminal legal system to continue their education. Their stories are examples of the role that education can play in transforming lives. …
By Brian Dolinar We are excited to share the news that we have chosen our first ever cohort of EJP Alumni Fellows. The new fellowship program is intended to enrich EJP’s efforts to support critical awareness of issues related to higher education in prison, incarceration, and reentry, while supporting EJP alumni in the development of…
We are excited to announce the results of our 2024 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Survey, the second survey since EJP launched our DEI Initiative. The DEI Survey was first released at a lunch event on Monday, December 2, 2024 with EJP members. You can read the 2024 DEI Survey online. The DEI Team plans…
Liliana Lule is a lecturer in the Latino/Latina Studies department at the University of Illinois. She has recently joined EJP as an instructor and will be teaching in Danville in Fall of 2023. EJP’s bi-annual call for course proposals appeared in Liliana Lule’s email inbox in February of 2023. The announcement struck a chord with…
Johnny Page has come a long way since he enrolled in classes at Cook County Jail just to get off the deck. Locked up at eighteen, he had always enjoyed reading and was an exemplary student when younger. However, in high school he got caught up in street life and dropped out. Once he started…
Shiphrah Nantongo loves her job. She announces this fact with a verve and vitality that feels rare to American ears. Shiphrah is the Project Officer for Wells of Hope Ministries’ Safe House for Women, a Ugandan transitional home for women who have been incarcerated. When I asked her what motivates her, Shiphrah spoke with buoyancy:…
