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Center for Prison Education

Offering a High Caliber Liberal Arts Education Inside Prison Walls

In 2016, Middlesex Community College, now CT State Middlesex, launched an innovative public-private partnership with Wesleyan University’s Center for Prison Education (CPE), allowing students in Connecticut’s prisons to take a mix of courses rostered at either institution and earn an Associate degree in recognition of their work. Since then, more than fifty students have been awarded Associate of Science degrees while incarcerated in this trailblazing program for the expanded college-in-prison landscape that the CPE stands for.

About

Through the Center, prisoners at the Cheshire Correctional Institution (CI), a men’s maximum security prison, and York CI,  Connecticut’s only women’s state prison, are invited to apply to take accredited Wesleyan and CT State Middlesex courses. The Center’s students are admitted through a rigorous admissions process, including multiple essays and faculty interviews.

The Center currently offers six courses each semester at Cheshire CI and three per semester at York CI. Classes are taught by CT State Middlesex and Wesleyan faculty who bring their courses from the main campus without changing the course content or their expectations of students. Since its inception, the Center has offered classes in subjects ranging from sociology to biology, political theory to advanced calculus.

Each student enrolls in two classes per semester and attends corresponding study halls. Students receive individualized attention and academic support from the faculty, staff and volunteers who work with the program. Every study hall is staffed by tutors and teaching assistants who are available to assist students in mastering new material, edit papers and provide any other necessary support. In addition to the core academic offerings, the Center provides supplemental programming including skill-building workshops, non-credit bearing remedial classes, discussion groups and lectures by visiting professors. The Center has also helped students transition to life outside of prison; they have continued to pursue higher education at both two and four-year colleges and obtain gainful employment.

By fostering innovative and collaborative learning, the Center offers a dynamic approach to reduce recidivism rates and democratize access to educational opportunities. The Center is a member of the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison.

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The Center for Prison Education is a privately funded initiative that relies on the generosity of its supporters. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today.

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