In the news: Higher education in prison
January 30, 2025
Governor Whitmer and MiLEAP Celebrate Progress Toward Sixty by 30 Goal
Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential
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.
January 23, 2025
Choosing his next chapter: Educational Transition Coordination program’s first graduate hopes to inspire others who have been incarcerated
Wayne State University
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%.
January 16, 2025
Office of Justice Programs and Department of Education Leaders Tout Progress in Educational Opportunities for Incarcerated Individuals at American Correctional Association Conference
U.S. Department of Justice
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.
January 8, 2025
The Labor Market for People with Conviction Histories
Vera
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.
December 12, 2024
Calvin Prison Initiative - Commemorating 10 Years
Second Mile Video
Highlights about what's happened over the first ten years of the Calvin Prison Initiative.
December 6, 2024
Siena Heights University Awarded $250,000 Grant to Expand Baccalaureate Rising Education Programs
Siena Heights University
Siena Heights University (SHU) is proud to announce it has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the State of Michigan to expand its Rising Education Program (REP) in partnership with the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC).
November 26, 2024
Inside the only college class in Texas to help prepare people for life after prison
Open Campus
More than 250 Texas prisoners are on the waitlist to join the Lee College reentry class. Programs like these prepare students to find jobs and help lower recidivism.
November 20, 2024
U.P.’s first prison collegiate education program starts in Chippewa County
UPword Michigan
Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie has enacted its “STEP UP” program, a prison education program designed to help those incarcerated in the Chippewa Correctional Facility a chance to earn an associate degree in small business administration.
November 13, 2024
Wayne State brings education to prisons
Wayne State University
As an institution of access and opportunity, Wayne State University is constantly pursuing ways to extend the reach of higher education. Beginning in the next academic year, that will include offering classes and a degree to students behind bars through a new Prison Education Program.
November 13, 2024
Good Day Northern Michigan
9 and 10 News
Marc Boucher talks about the impact and goal of LSSU’s Prison Education Program STEP UP









