When prison education went virtual, an MIT program reached new incarcerated students
Dominique Kirk, who enrolled in college classes through MIT's remote prison education program, poses in the education center at Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center.
From GBH News:
Dominique Kirk always valued education, but she dropped out of college to prioritize caring for her kids. Years later, when she arrived at Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center, a minimum-security facility, she had a goal in mind when she talked to Education Director Abbie Embry-Turner.
“I had a lot of issues in here,” she said in a Zoom call from the facility. “When I met Abbie, I told her that I actually wanted to get my life together, and that schooling was one thing that I wanted to get back to.”
Kirk restarted her college journey last year thanks to a remote learning program offered at SMWRC, a pilot from The Education Justice Institute at MIT. Now, she has plans to finish her associate’s degree in business through the University of Maine at Augusta.
Both educators and correctional facility administrators say MIT’s virtual program has been a success, allowing them to reach across geographic barriers, offer classes that teach in-demand skills and reach underserved populations in New England. They hope it can be a model for prison education moving forward, well past the pandemic.