A round-up of recent prison education news: public data, an inside literary prize, and staff shortages

A?new law in Illinois?will require the state to publish public data on enrollment, demographics, and waitlists for higher education programs in its prisons, reports IPM News. The?act went into effect?Jan 1.?

Freedom Reads, the National Book Foundation and the Center for Justice Innovation launched the Inside literary prize, the first major US book award to be judged exclusively by incarcerated people. The winner will be announced in June 2024, according to The Guardian.??

The Daily Collegian reports that?Penn State will become the second university?in Pennsylvania to provide incarcerated people with the opportunity to earn their bachelor’s degrees.

Prison Journalism Project contributor?Anthony Ehlers?interviews James Soto, who was released from prison at the end of last year after a 42-year fight to prove his innocence, for Chicago Reader. In November, Soto graduated from Northwestern University’s Northwestern Prison Education Program at Stateville in Illinois.?

A federal grant has allowed Minnesota to offer incarcerated people training to become peer support specialists — a position focused on helping others by drawing on one’s own personal experience with addiction and recovery — at correctional facilities across the state,?reports the Star Tribune. The certification allows them to work with their peers inside prison and qualifies them to pursue careers in peer recovery support once they are released.

Cal State LA has received?a $900,000 grant?from the U.S. Department of Justice to establish an educational and employment program that supports individuals during incarceration and reentry. The program will link formerly incarcerated college graduates with regional employers and community organizations.

As prisons cut back on classes, counseling, and other programming — or people are transferred to other prisons without the same offerings — incarcerated people lose important outlets for mental health and well-being and may turn to less productive ways to fill their days,?Tony Vick writes for Filter.?

In 2022, the number of people working for state prisons hit its lowest mark in over two decades,?The Marshall Project reports. Meanwhile, the population in state prisons is rebounding after a drop at the start of the pandemic. Staff shortages affect everything from education to healthcare.

A?recent report?from the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition highlights the continued problems that prison staff shortages create for the state’s incarcerated population,?reports Colorado Newsline. The corrections department regularly diverts program staff to work security shifts when there aren’t enough correctional officers. Almost 90 percent of incarcerated people who responded to a survey said staff like teachers and case managers are frequently or very frequently reassigned to a correctional officer post in their prisons.