A Milestone Achievement

On April 28, 2025, the Hope-Western Prison Education Program celebrated a milestone achievement of one of its students. Carlos Garcia (Class of 2025) earned the distinguished honor of being inducted into the Hope College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest honor society. In a ceremony at Muskegon Correctional Facility, Dr. James Allis, Hope College professor and member of Phi Beta Kappa, marked the celebratory occasion in the presence of HWPEP students, staff and corrections administrators.

Behind bars yet full of purpose: Dreaming bigger through Calvin Prison Initiative

A decade in, the program has been a resounding success. And, as intended, the program isn't just changing prison culture inside the fences at Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan, it's having ripple effects throughout prisons statewide.

Second Chance Month 2025 - Nick Nichols

20 years ago, Nick was incarcerated and without direction for his life. Today he is a founder and co-executive director of his own nonprofit that assists individuals paroled on the west side of the state.

Calvin Prison Initiative helps unlock a calling behind bars

Shane Browning discusses his upbringing, struggles with hope, and his journey to forgiveness while serving a life sentence at Kinross Correctional Facility. His participation in the eighth cohort in the Calvin Prison Initiative Program was instrumental in this journey.

Viewpoint: Put higher ed in prisons

Participating in high-quality, workforce-aligned postsecondary education during and after incarceration provides the best chance for preparing such individuals to successfully re-enter their communities, avoid recidivism, and achieve economic mobility.

Hope-Western Prison Education Program | Overview

The Hope-Western Prison Education Program provides a bachelor of arts degree in Faith, Leadership, & Service to incarcerated students at Muskegon Correctional Facility. The program is a partnership between Hope College, Western Theological Seminary, and the Michigan Department of Corrections. Launched in 2019, the program equips students to live lives of leadership and service in their community, whether inside or outside the prison context.

Governor Whitmer and MiLEAP Celebrate Progress Toward Sixty by 30 Goal

Governor Gretchen Whitmer and MiLEAP are celebrating the announcement of new data that shows Michigan’s education attainment stands at 51.8%, up from 45% when the state’s Sixty by 30 attainment goal was first announced by the governor in 2019, according to the Lumina Foundation.

Choosing his next chapter: Educational Transition Coordination program’s first graduate hopes to inspire others who have been incarcerated

Washington is Wayne State's Educational Transition Coordination Program's first graduate, exemplifying the success of a program in which no participant has recidivated. Though 79% of people who leave prison end up rearrested within five years, earning a bachelor’s degree reduces recidivism to just 5%. For those who earn a master’s degree, it’s reduced to less than 1%.

Office of Justice Programs and Department of Education Leaders Tout Progress in Educational Opportunities for Incarcerated Individuals at American Correctional Association Conference

The American Correctional Association Winter Conference featured discussions of efforts to break down barriers that divide correctional education as separate from the larger field of education. Office of Justice Programs has invested heavily in evolving the nation’s approach to corrections and supporting people as they return from confinement to their communities.

The Labor Market for People with Conviction Histories

In this study, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) takes the approach of starting at the end goal—a good job—and working backward from there to determine which good jobs are legally accessible to people with conviction histories in order to inform which college programs or credentials to offer.