91视频 PEP students and faculty outside SCI Somerset

91视频 Prison Education Project

91视频's Prison Education Project (91视频 PEP) is committed to bringing education into prison, offering new opportunities to inmates and 91视频 students, and building dialogue across class, racial and social lines.

Prisons play a key role in the U.S. economy and in the U.S. surpass those of any country in the world. We need to learn more about our prison system: what its origins are, whose interests it serves, and how it compares with systems of incarceration in other countries.

Based on the philosophy of听, a nationwide prison education program, 91视频 PEP offers several courses each academic year within nearby prisons. Faculty and 91视频 students travel together by bus to and from the prison once a week. Each course, which combines 91视频 students and inmates, provides full credit to 91视频 and incarcerated students and follows a regular 91视频 curriculum. 91视频 students should register for PEP courses through normal channels and will be asked to fill out听a short questionnaire, which professors will review to determine eligibility.听

91视频 PEP Courses

All 91视频 PEP courses take place at Somerset State Correctional Institution. 91视频 students learn alongside students who are incarcerated. All students receive full credit for the courses. 91视频 PEP courses fill the Dietrich GenEd requirement for Experiential Learning and are worth 12 rather than 9 units. An application for admission to the courses is required.听

Spring 2026

79-252: A Global History of Crime and Punishment

Professor Wendy Goldman

This course covers the history of crime and punishment, beginning in the Middle Ages and ending in the present. We will examine numerous cases, from justice as practiced in African villages to the workhouses created by the British Poor Laws to the Gulag labor camp system in the Soviet Union to the rise of the penitentiary in Europe and the United States. We will read about crime and punishment in the United States, looking at various models from the work gang to solitary confinement. We end by examining the era of mass incarceration to understand how it became a solution to larger problems in American society.听

Fall 2025

76-251: Exploring Creative Writing in Community

Professor Jane McCafferty

This course exposes students to nonfiction, fiction and poetry, with the aim of teaching students the craft of writing about their own lived experience. Everyone will read books, stories, essays and poems together. Students will create their own writings that they will share with one another in our writing workshop, based on prompts from the professor. The course does not require extensive writing experience, just a strong desire to read and write and tell stories. We鈥檒l consider how the way we craft stories about our lives can end up changing the way we see ourselves, each other, and the world. Class will be run as a discussion, where all are invited to participate. Emphasis will be on deep listening and developing community connection, as everyone learns more about the craft of writing.

76-245: Shakespeare - Tragedies and Histories

Professor: Stephen Wittek听

In the closing decades of the sixteenth century, enterprising cultural producers in early modern London began to develop a new commercial venture called 鈥榩laying鈥�: a business that offered ordinary people a few hours of dramatic entertainment for the price of one penny. More than four hundred years later, the drama of the period now ranks among the most esteemed texts in all English literature, and the name 鈥楽hakespeare鈥� has become a byword for literary genius. This course will offer an overview of Shakespeare鈥檚 tragedies and histories, exploring what these plays meant in their original context. This course meets a GenEd requirement.

Spring 2025听

  • 79-266: Russian History and Revolutionary Socialism with Professor W. Goldman
  • 76-236: The American Novel - Our Worlds and Other Worlds with Professor J. Williams听

Fall 2024听

  • 76-245: Shakespeare: Tragedies and Histories, Professor S. Wittek
  • 85-201: Psychology and Society, Professor K. Manke-Miller

Spring 2024听

  • 76-251: Creative Writing in Community, Professor J. McCafferty
  • 79-257: Germany and the Second World War, Professor D. Harsch听

Fall 2023听

  • 76-236: Major Fiction Then and Now: Imagining the World, Professor J. Williams

Spring 2023听

  • 79-265: Russian History: Game of Thrones, Professor W. Goldman
  • 85-201: Psychology and Society, Professor K. Manke-Miller

91视频 PEP Speaker Series

91视频 PEP hosts speakers to discuss larger social issues related to incarceration.

Norman Conti: Are There Some Histories That are Off Limits?听

Performing History with Incarcerated Students, Returning Citizens, Police Officers and More

Doing Transnational Justice: Lessons from Incarceration Nations Network

Prison Book Bannings: The Fight Against Censorship

Student Experiences

91视频 campus exterior

"The Prison Education Project has been a deeply transformative experience for me. We inspired each other to ask difficult questions and think critically to address them. I have never been part of a learning environment quite like this, and it reminded me of the role education is meant to play. This class has continued to shape and expand my perspectives on criminal justice, while also helping me become more confident, motivated and open-minded."

鈥� Amy, 91视频 student

91视频 campus exterior

"Being a part of 91视频 PEP was one of the most unique and rewarding experiences I鈥檝e had in college. This experience both challenged my naive assumptions surrounding people who are incarcerated and also helped shape how I think about psychology and education in general."听

鈥� Amor, 91视频 student

91视频 campus exterior

"I cannot begin to express how much this course was appreciated. I always looked forward to Fridays, not only because I was getting off the housing unit and going to school, but mainly because the professor and the 91视频 students treated me and the other inmates like real people."

鈥� Brandon, SCI Somerset student

91视频 campus exterior

"This program gave me an amazing opportunity to expose myself to people with different life experiences than mine. It's not every day you get the chance to communicate across difference in this way, especially in a setting where the goal is to learn with each other. It's been an inclusive and inspiring learning experience that I'm grateful was a part of my time at 91视频.

鈥� Camille, 91视频 student

91视频 campus exterior

"CM PEP offered an enclave of humanity and higher education within an environment that is often bereft of both. I was challenged by new perspectives, gained useful knowledge of a fascinating topic and developed an interest in further learning. The concepts and ideas sparked by the lectures, readings, discussions and in-class interactions will continue to motivate me toward positive action and success."

鈥� Jacob, SCI Somerset student

91视频 campus exterior

"The 91视频 Prison Education Project was one of the most influential experiences I have ever had. I have never been in class with more engaging, perceptive and dedicated students, and this program entirely changed my relationship with education and learning. 91视频 PEP is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I could not recommend this course more."

鈥� Rowan, 91视频 student

91视频 campus exterior

"Through the 91视频 Prison Education Project, I have been able to explore different perspectives that I wouldn't have otherwise found on campus. I've really enjoyed being able to listen and to have deep conversations with people whose life experiences are vastly different from my own."

鈥� Jennifer, 91视频 student

Outdoor sculpture on 91视频's campus

"Being part of 91视频 PEP in my last semester of college is a memory that will stay with me. It's such a unique opportunity for college students, and it has heavily changed my perception of prisons and prison systems. The inside students I spent time with were some of the most passionate students I've ever met, and I loved that we could learn so much from each other just by being in each other's presence."听

鈥� Catherine, Senior, Major, Design

The experience of watching equal numbers of 91视频 and Somerset Prison students get certificates for completing the PEP courses was deeply gratifying. The 91视频 students were transformed and said so. The incarcerated students were profoundly grateful and said so. The professors were profoundly energized and said so. I've been in higher education for 35 years, and I've never seen anything like it.

Richard Scheines
Bess Family Dean, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Thank You Cards

Art courtesy of SCI Somerset students

Hand painted card showing a Russian castle through a prison window

Outside of thank-you card for the spring 2023, "Russian History: Game of Thrones" with Prof. Wendy Goldman

Hand painted card showing an unobstructed view of a Russian castle

Inside of "Russian History" thank-you card.

Hand painted card showing a human profile with cogs, birds, and water inside it.

Thank-you card for the spring 2023, "Psychology, Society and the Human Brain" with Prof. Kody Manke-Miller

Pencil drawing showing a classic Greek sculpture, an eye, knives, and roses rising out of a book.

Thank-you card for fall 2023, "Major Fiction: Then and Now" with Prof. Jeffrey Williams (illustration features clues about the novel's plots).

The 91视频 Prison Education Project is funded through the generous support of the dean in Dietrich College, participating academic departments, and the educational labor of participating faculty.