Check out recent EPI news on Emerson Today and other sources!
- Return of federal financial aid for inmates creating ‘life changing’ opportunities for people in prison: Boston Globe
- Gellman on Importance of College in Prison: GBH
- Gellman Speaks with Alyssa Milano about Significance of College in Prison: Sorry Not Sorry Podcast
- As Second Chance Pell Grant Program grows, more incarcerated people can get degrees - but there's a difference prison-run and college-run education behind bars (The Conversation)
- All in prison, not just some, should gain from Healey’s education boost (The Boston Globe)
- Unlocking Higher Education: Experts make the case for more college behind bars (Dig Boston)
- Grads, professors discuss Emerson Prison Initiative (The Berkeley Beacon)
- Four EPI Alumni Share Educational Journeys (Emerson Today)
- Emerson College professor calls successful prison initiative a 'deep labor of love' (CBS Boston)
- EPI Students Win National Economic Essay Contest
- Mass. leaders push benefits of college-in-prison programs to the incoming administration (GBH)
- Position paper calls for expansion of higher education opportunities in Massachusetts prisons (The Boston Foundation)
- How College in Prison is Leading Professors to Rethink How They Teach (The Conversation)
- From Incarcerated Person to College Graduate: The Emerson Prison Initiative’s First Graduation (Institute of International Education)
- Community Voices: Dean Ansell’s remarks at Emerson Prison Initiative’s First Commencement (Bard Prison Initiative)
- With first graduates, EPI celebrates six years of transformative education (Emerson Today)
View all EPI stories on Emerson Today
Featured News
Education Behind the Wall addresses significant issues faced by faculty and administrators who implement access to college classes for people who are incarcerated. Through case studies chapters that highlight strengths and obstacles to teaching different disciplines behind the wall, this edited volume looks at the trade-offs that take place when teaching in carceral spaces. Overall, the book advocates for an analysis of power as fundamental to learning in both carceral and traditional campuses.
Resources
To learn more about college in prison, please visit our library resource guide.
Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI) Language Guidelines
Rationale
Language is powerful. The way we talk about people who are or were incarcerated shapes perception of them. Humanizing language is an important initiative to shape public perception as well as the selfimage of those with criminal records. To aid this effort, it is important to emphasize humane representation of those who are or were incarcerated. This language practice guide seeks to identify people as people first, and to not be solely defined by their carceral experiences. EPI asks that you consider the following language guidelines.
Avoid
EPI suggests using terms that emphasize a person’s agency and humanity, in either person-first or identity-first phrasing:
- Students who are incarcerated, or incarcerated students
- Person who is currently incarcerated, or incarcerated person
- Person who was formerly incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated person
- Person on parole or paroled person
- Person recently released from prison
For EPI, students are college students first. EPI students are enrolled Emerson College students, and we want their dignity as students to be foregrounded.
Also, what EPI and other programs like it offer is “education in prison,” which is comparable to the college education provided to Emerson College students on the Boston campus. This is distinct from “prison education,” which is programming operated by Departments of Correction across the United
States.
Thank you for keeping these terminology guidelines in mind as you discuss the EPI program in media, research, or everyday conversation.
