Giving Compass' Take:

• Prison-to-College Pipeline works to bring higher education to incarcerated persons to increase justice and safety in communities around the world.

• What do inmates need to successfully reintegrate into society? What role can you play in supporting transitional programs? 

• Find out how California's prison education is producing impressive results. 

In South Africa, the Prison-to-College Pipeline SA (P2CP) has been developed through a partnership between Stellenbosch University and the South African Department of Correctional Services and Western Cape Community Organisations aimed at integrating prisoners back into their communities. P2CP is an innovative educational programme developed in New York by 2017-2018 Global Fulbright Scholar, Prof. Baz Dreisinger, that provides prisoners with access to public university-level education, mentorship, and community support to increase their chances of timely graduation and employment upon release.

The Prison-to-College Pipeline model – born at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, and heralded as an innovative, successful model by the New York Times, PBS, Al Jazeera and many more—creates a powerful partnership between institutions of higher learning and departments of corrections. It is premised on the notion that universities have a powerful role to play in building safer, more just communities and educating the broader public about justice; that incarcerated students bring tremendous intellectual and social gifts to places of learning; and that in order for broad justice change to transpire, a narrative shift about prisons and the people in them must occur. The program currently serves some 250 individuals in New York State, has been replicated in the UK and is currently being implemented in Jamaica and Trinidad.

Read the full article about Prison-to-College Pipeline at BizNews.