MPEC

Massachusetts Prison Education Consortium

The Vera Institute of Justice (Vera)—with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation – selected Massachusetts to receive a competitive grant to form a statewide consortium that supports a postsecondary education continuum for currently and formerly incarcerated people. This initiative, the Massachusetts Prison Education Consortium (MPEC) is managed by TEJI and is responsible for establishing and sustaining an education pipeline with a strong foundation in the humanities that begins during incarceration and continues into the community. MPEC is also responsible for creating academic and career advising specific to the needs of justice-involved students. In addition to a diverse range of institutions of higher education, MPEC members include: the Massachusetts Department of Correction, Massachusetts Probation Service, Massachusetts Parole Board, Office of Community Corrections, The Petey Greene Program, reentry service providers, employers, members of the business community, and federal, state, and local policymakers. Vera provides expert information and technical assistance to support MPEC’s efforts and growth.

As described in Vera’s “Making the Grade” report, high quality college-in-prison programming is designed to ensure that students are better able to seek admission to college programs post-release, transfer credits, or be competitive with college graduates in the community. The quality and content of college programming should be equivalent to that offered to students on campuses in the community. College faculty must view the classroom in prison as an important space where students are challenged to think, question, learn, and grow, just as they would in a classroom on any college campus in the community. Special attention should be given to the development of a student-centric humanities pedagogy. 

Effective creation and delivery of high quality postsecondary education in prison results in a diverse set of benefits at the individual and societal levels. Because of this, MPEC provides an innovative vehicle to streamline delivery of instruction, create durable connections for communication & sharing of best practices in the field, and expands the awareness of issues in prison-based education to a wider societal audience.