Lessons Learned from Prison Education Interruption during Pandemic. Fact Sheet

Overview & Synopsis

As the novel coronavirus spreads across the country, the pandemic has raged through United States correctional facilities with little regard to the health of the incarcerated. The pandemic also affected access to postsecondary education and adult education in correctional facilities. As a result, prison education programs--including postsecondary programs--faced technological and bureaucratic challenges to continuing the term. This fact sheet by Cameron Johnson details the effect the coronavirus pandemic has had on prison postsecondary education. Focusing on the spring 2020 term, it highlights some changes in correctional facility visitation policy, details challenges in the provision of prison postsecondary education, recognizes the history of prison education disruption, and amplifies appropriate policy solutions. Despite the many challenges the pandemic presents to prison education, advocates and people who are incarcerated have offered solutions that policymakers and others can actualize. They can help leaders strengthen postsecondary prison education throughout and beyond the immediate pandemic.