SLU Prison Education Program is 15 years and counting

This year, 2023, marks the 15th anniversary of the Saint Louis University (SLU) Prison Education Program (PEP). In preparing to celebrate this anniversary, I returned, again and again, to something seemingly contradictory in the nature and history of PEP. Readers here, those familiar with Jesuit education, those with conflicting identities, or those who have lived many different lives before arriving here, know how to hold and sit with contradictions. The contradiction I ask you to consider for higher education in prison is that it is both small and interpersonal while being vast and expansive beyond all other higher education experiences.

SLU’s PEP is one of the smaller college-in-prison programs in existence. PEP launched as a series of courses in Theological Studies in 2008, and in 2011 expanded into an Associate of Arts degree program, admitting one cohort of incarcerated students and one cohort of prison employees. PEP still utilizes a cohort system, with students taking one course per accelerated term, five courses annually. Two cohorts of students have graduated since 2011, and a third will graduate in 2025. In 2010, PEP wanted to maintain a presence at the facility while preparing for the new degree program, so a faculty member organized a few lectures. This developed into a speaker series that brings 8-10 arts and humanities events to the prison each year. Workshops grew out of the speaker series when audience members asked for more time to work with speakers on collaborative projects.

The smallness of PEP contributed greatly to its stability. In the first year of a cohort, there is apprehension among the group. This apprehension is deserved – our students have been let down by many systems. Sometime during the second year, a cohesion develops. The group becomes a community. Students find time and space to work together in the facility. The relationships contribute to PEP’s success. Each student receives individualized attention from faculty and staff. In 2020, when COVID kept SLU away from PEP students for over a year, we knew exactly which students would struggle with asynchronous learning, and we were prepared. The PEP team, including our incarcerated TAs, knows each student’s strengths and struggles, and we can respond appropriately.

And yet, I am often amazed at the vastness of PEP, specifically what the students have accomplished. Inspired by SLU’s Jesuit mission and dedication to service, incarcerated SLU students started a community service organization, whose primary project is tutoring. Several men inside the prison who were not eligible for GED classes earned their certification because of this tutoring. Students share the experience of studying for classes with their students, sometimes over the phone or together during visits. Faculty members often ask PEP when they can teach again at the prison. Conversations with other Jesuit institutions developed JPEN, bringing us here today. 

Higher education in prison requires small actions and big ideas. The big idea – that Jesuit higher education is for all members of our community, and it is our responsibility to bring it to them – is realized by taking the steps to make it so. Every day.