Northwestern Prison Education Program
Northwestern Prison Education Program Update
The Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) was born of the selfless dream of NPEP director Jennifer Lackey, the Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy. Once a young girl delivering cookies and other treats to the county jail, Professor Lackey now leads the charge in providing an opportunity for incarcerated men and women to obtain a liberal arts degree from the School of Professional Studies.
In 2018, two years after Professor Lackey began teaching at Stateville Correctional Center, NPEP established its inaugural cohort, and twenty incarcerated men began taking classes toward earning an associate degree from NPEP’s partner, Oakton Community College. Since then, NPEP has grown to three cohorts in total: two at Stateville and one at Logan Correctional Center.
In 2020, like the rest of the world, the resilience of NPEP was tested by the spread of COVID-19. Due to unrelenting dedication and commitment, NPEP transitioned to a correspondence model. We continued to interact with professors and tutors by handwritten letters, at times never meeting with them face-to-face. The Graduate Student Advisory Council (GSAC), comprised entirely of volunteers, worked hard to stay present for the students. GSAC members helped to facilitate the correspondence program so that volunteers could write students weekly to assist with coursework and maintain the crucial peer-to-peer connections that are central to the NPEP community.
In the wake of ongoing concerns about the virus, NPEP miraculously managed to pull off an historic graduation ceremony at Stateville, while simultaneously facilitating Restorative Justice seminars and transitioning back to in-person classes. In collaboration with GSAC’s wellness team, Oakton professor Megan Klein visits regularly to provide students the support they need to continue their pursuit of a Northwestern bachelor’s degree. All in all, the students at Stateville are enjoying an incremental return to some semblance of normalcy, and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to NPEP and GSAC volunteers.
Recently, in an announcement from Provost Kathleen Hagerty, Northwestern admitted its inaugural class of bachelor’s degree-seeking students. In doing so, Northwestern made history, achieving a milestone for prison education as the first such program to be offered by a top 10 university. Cohort 1 is on pace to graduate from Northwestern in 2023, Cohort 2 eagerly anticipates their admissions decisions, and Logan students continue their diligent work taking classes for Northwestern credit.
Professor Lackey, Provost Hagerty, and countless other partners at Northwestern took the bold and courageous step of making bachelor’s degrees for NPEP students a reality. They all know that education enlightens, empowers, and transforms. NPEP is producing poets and painters, policy writers and legal advocates, sociologists and philosophers, published authors and lovers of math and physics, visionaries and leaders, and mentors and dreamers. Each student, in their own way, is ready to continue the Northwestern legacy of changing the world.
Demetrice “DC” Crite, William Peeples, and LeShun Smith
NPEP Students at Stateville Correctional Center