Justice Education Series
Educating volunteers and the public on the need and opportunity to effect systemic change in the criminal legal system.
The Petey Greene Program seeks to develop justice-oriented citizens—those who understand the root causes of injustice—by providing college students and community members with the opportunity to tutor, and educating volunteers on the need and opportunity to effect systemic change in the criminal legal system. To that end, we offer the Justice Education Series, which is designed to raise volunteers’ and public awareness of the policies and practices that create mass incarceration and produce the educational experiences of the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated learners that we support.
Through the Justice Education Series and the workshops and events we host on college campuses, we help volunteers become advocates for systemic change by connecting them to the ideas, organizations, campaigns, and people working on changing unjust systems and policies.
We believe that formerly incarcerated people and other system-impacted people are the experts. For this reason, we prioritize their voices and expertise in working toward systemic change, and since the series’ inception, 72% of presenters have been system-impacted people. From these conversations and our other justice-oriented leadership programming, we have developed a reputation for helping college students and the broader public expand their knowledge about incarceration, reentry, and education as one pathway to freedom and thriving. Over 80% of those who attend the webinars report that these events help them understand how to advocate for systemic change.
Missed A webinar? We invite you to watch the recordings.
Beyond the US: Incarceration and Educational Justice Across the World
The first webinar of the Petey Greene Program's Spring 2024 Justice Education Series was presented by the Puttkammer Center for Educational Justice and Equity. In "Beyond the US: Incarceration and Educational Justice Across the World," we took a global look at other countries’ carceral systems, discussed trends in incarceration and heard from organizations that foster educational justice across the world.
LGBTQ+ Experiences and Identities in the Age of Mass Incarceration
LGBTQ+ people are overrepresented in our country's prisons and jails. In this Justice Education series webinar, we spoke with justice-impacted people who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. They shared their experiences and offered advice on how we can become better allies and advocates in this space.
Unlocking Healthcare Equity: Navigating Health Challenges Posed by Incarceration
People in our prisons and jails are more likely to have complex medical challenges such as substance use disorders, mental health problems, diabetes, HIV, and other conditions. However, healthcare can be difficult to access in the carceral setting and when it is available, is often low-quality or confusing for patients to navigate. In this conversation, we spoke with individuals and organizations leading efforts to improve healthcare options for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and learned how we can better advocate for improved health outcomes for these vulnerable populations.
Art as Transformation and Justice in the Carceral System Confirmation
Art can serve as a powerful outlet for people navigating the criminal legal system, incarceration, or reentry. During this webinar, we explored how art can be a form of healing, liberation, humanity, and more. Join the Petey Greene Program and justice-impacted artists and advocates for a panel discussion on their experiences and work accompanied by an art showcase.
What is to Be Done? Black College Students Confronting The Carceral State
When the PGP launched our HBCU Forward Initiative in 2021, we argued that our efforts to recruit, elevate, and support Black volunteer tutors were important because those most harmed by the criminal legal system, should be the ones leading efforts to change it. For this webinar, we highlighted the educational justice work of four Black-led student organizations from three Historically Black Colleges. While many college students are aware of the system that funnels people from defunded schools and communities to incarceration, these student organizations are trying to do something about it.
A Conversation with Dr. Treva Lindsey author of America, Goddam: Violence, Black Women, and the Struggle for Justice
In this webinar, we explored this exclusion by learning about how Black women and girls became societal afterthoughts and victims of domestic, carceral, and anti-Black violence. In conversation with Black feminist historian Dr. Treva B. Lindsey, author of America, Goddam: Violence, Black Women, And The Struggle For Justice (2022), we grappled with the history of violence and criminalization of Black women and girls while also learning of their strivings for justice. PGP volunteer tutors, Virginia Union University, and the broader concerned community, ended this webinar with an expanded vision of educational justice by looking at the roots of injustice towards Black women and girls.
The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration
During this webinar, our panelists helped us understand the policies and practices that have harmed Black families while also helping us grapple with the impact of mass incarceration on Black families and communities. While we learned about how incarceration produces income loss for families, pushes children into foster care, makes families vulnerable to housing insecurity, maintains or leads to over-policed communities, increases risk of incarceration to children of incarcerated parents, etc., our panelists also helped us understand how to advocate for policies and practices that restore Black families and Black communities.
What is Educational Justice?
During this webinar, panelists Ved Price - executive director for the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, Rebecca Ginsburg - co-founder and current director of the Education Justice Project, William Freeman III - manager of Higher Education Education Justice Initiatives for the Education Trust, and Christina Dawkins - social justice consultant of A4Abolitionist will help us think about and apply answers to these five broad questions: (1) What is educational injustice/justice? (2) What is the relationship between mass incarceration, the carceral state, and educational justice? (3) Why should prison education programs pursue education justice? (4) In what ways does high-quality educational programming support the freedom dreams of currently incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people? (5) What is the relationship between educational justice, reform, abolition, and freedom dreaming?
Educational Access for Incarcerated Women: Challenges and Opportunities
According to the Sentencing Project, as a result of new laws, tougher penalties, and “barriers to reentry that uniquely affect women,” since the 1980s, incarceration rates for women and girls have increased sevenfold. However, access to vocational and educational programs that assist incarcerated people and their families in living sustainable lives post incarceration hasn’t kept pace. This conversation among formerly incarcerated women and education administrators will help us to understand why and to learn how we can advocate for greater educational access for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women.
Reentry and Education: A Policy Perspective
Stephanie Bazell of the College and Community Fellowship, Syrita Steib of Operation Restoration, Barbi Brown from the Tennessee Higher Education Prison Initiative, and Pastor and former PGP student Erich Kussman discussed the policy initiatives needed to expand educational access and ensure educational success for learners continuing or pursuing education post incarceration. Panelists confered about policy initiatives like Banning the Box, standardization of educational programming, housing support, counseling, and financial aid, and helped us understand how we can advocate for policy change that supports an education continuum for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated learners.
Changing the System and Communities: How System-Impacted People are Pursuing Systemic Change
Learn how system-impacted people, including formerly incarcerated people and children of currently and formerly incarcerated parents, are fighting to change carceral policies that impact them directly, and all of us indirectly. Panelists will help us understand why it’s important for system-impacted people to lead movements for systemic change. They will share how we can all join in their efforts on a range of issues, such as increasing access to education, ending solitary confinement, mitigating the harm of incarceration on children and families, and removing employment and voting restrictions.
What About the 30%? Education Before College in Prison
A panel of scholars, practitioners, and system-impacted people examined how to increase access to high-quality education for pre-collegiate incarcerated learners. While many colleges and universities have developed prison-based programs in recent years, there also remains a shortage of high-quality programming for the roughly 30% of incarcerated learners who don’t have a GED or high school diploma. Even those with a high school credential often lack crucial skills that are necessary to succeed in today’s workplace and post-secondary education and thus benefit from additional college readiness programming.
Panelists discussed the landscape of pre-collegiate education for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, helped us understand what high-quality pre-collegiate education looks like, and how we can advocate for it.
Defund, Decriminalize, Abolish: What do they really mean?
Over the past year, the demands to "Defund the Police," "Decriminalize Marijuana," and "Abolish Prisons" have risen from grassroots movements to the mainstream conversation and political campaigns. But what do they mean?
Through this webinar, activists, scholars, and writers-Reginald Dwayne Betts, Victoria Law, and Elizabeth Hintonhelped us become more familiar with each of these movements. Panelists explored how each of these movements intersect, discussed the role of education in these movements, and imagined how these movements might lead us toward a more just future.
COVID-19 and Prison Education: A Student Perspective
This webinar explored how Covid-19 has impacted incarcerated people and the educational services they receive. Our panelists, Nicole Guyette, Richard Gonzalez, Norma Dhanaraj, Allan Wachendorfer, and Michael Butler, along with Moderator, Anthony Landers helped us to understand:
The spread of the virus in carceral facilities
The shutdown of in-person programming, including education
How we can advocate for incarcerated people
How we can provide alternative access to education during the pandemic
What Does It Mean To Be A Justice-Oriented Citizen?
This webinar addressed questions like (1) How have student-led social justice movements in the past operated, (2) What does a career in social justice look like, (3) what are the different pathways through which we can pursue systemic change, and (4) How do you join those directly impacted to end mass incarceration? Through this conversation, we explored how to integrate charitable volunteerism with justice-oriented change.
Reentry and Education: A Student Perspective
This webinar centered on the voices and experiences of formerly incarcerated people who participated in educational access or support through a reentry program. Panelists not only shared their experiences with education programs after incarceration but also talked about how educational access mitigated some of the challenges they faced after incarceration and what academic credentials mean to them beyond increasing employability and decreasing recidivism.
Approaches to Reentry
This webinar featured panelists from JEVS Human Services-Looking Forward Philadelphia, the Center for Health and Justice Transformation, Hope House NYC, Voices of Reentry, and Fresh Start @Your Library who helped us grapple with the challenges faced by returning citizens, and how coordinated approaches assist formerly incarcerated people and their families thrive and reach their freedom dreams. This webinar was moderated by Nia Hill, a PGP volunteer.
The Carceral State and Education
Scholar-activists, Nora Krintsky, Breea Willingham, and Michelle Jones joined in conversation about the relationship between the carceral state and education for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated learners. The panel was moderated by Masha Miura, a PGP volunteer and co-president of Students for Prison Education, Abolition and Reform (SPEAR).
Education on the Inside: A Student Perspective
This webinar focused on prison education or education programs in carceral spaces from the perspective of students. We learned about education in jails and prison from formerly incarcerated students themselves. Through this discussion, we had the opportunity to reflect on ways to better support the freedom dreams of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students.
Marking Time: A book talk with Dr. Nicole Fleetwood
Scholar and author Dr. Nicole Fleetwood, a Professor of American Studies and Art History at Rutgers University, joined the Petey Greene Program for a virtual discussion and Q & A on her recently published work Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass incarceration.