February’s Shared Offering: Education Justice Project and Prison Justice Project

This month’s shared offering collection will be shared by two groups, the Education Justice Project and the Prison Justice Project.

The mission of the Education Justice project (EJP) is to build a model college-in-prison program that demonstrates the positive impacts of higher education upon incarcerated people, their families, the communities from which they come, the host institution, and society as a whole. EJP is committed to building an open, inclusive learning environment and to transparent, collaborative governance. EJP also believes that critical self-reflection is an important part of creating and sustaining a healthy program climate. The heart of EJP exists at the Danville prison campus, where a learning community of incarcerated students and instructors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign come together multiple times each week to engage in a range of different programs, from for-credit classes and theatre, to writing workshops and English as a Second Language (ESL). They also have an alumni program for released students and a family outreach component.

The Prison Justice Project is the UIUC Student Group dedicated to incarceration awareness and is a student affiliate of the Education Justice Project. Their aim is to create safe, productive spaces to learn about and discuss all aspects of incarceration. Ultimately, they hope to foster a community of individuals that are truly passionate about reforming the penal system of the United States. Each semester they organize monthly forums that address an aspect of incarceration such as mass incarceration, collateral impacts of incarceration, drug laws, juvenile justice, immigration, and systemic racism. They truly believe in dialogue and its power to inspire change.