51�� Prison Education Initiative

51�� Prison Education Initiative

Since 2015, the Prison Education Initiative (PEI) has brought 51�� faculty to Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security men's prison in Comstock, New York.

Our mission is threefold:

to provide a quality liberal arts undergraduate education to incarcerated students
to support lifelong learning in men and women serving life sentences
to foster transformative conversations around prison reform in America

In July 2024, the NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) announced plans to close Great Meadow in November 2024. In coordination with DOCCS and college-in-prison partners around the state, PEI staff helped facilitate the transfer of all PEI students to other college programs in New York facilities.

In spring 2025, PEI will begin offering courses at Washington Correctional Facility, a medium-security men's prison in Comstock, New York.

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Prison Education Initiative

Since PEI’s inception in 2015, the program has served more than 100 students at Great Meadow Correctional Facility, offering courses in literature, philosophy, social research, history of thought, architecture, political theory, social psychology, math, computer programming, drawing, Latin, and U.S. and world history.

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More About PEI

Lifelong Learning

Past Conferences

Interviews with Class of '22 Graduates

PEI celebrated its eight years after the program launched; eleven students were awarded their 51�� Associate of Arts degrees. Here are a few of their stories:

Jason B.

Victor B.

Terrance C.

Joseph K.

Greg M.

Jason S.

Prison education initiative class session

“I no longer take literature classes for a grade or a degree. I take them out of love for the art and unquestionable wealth of brilliance I get from being a student.”

—PEI student, 2018

PEI student in green hat looking at bookshelf and smiling

“I found the class both enjoyable and illuminating and have left it with a deeper appreciation of democracy, the concept of popular rule, and for political theory itself…Given the opportunity to be treated as a person and to be challenged has helped me to feel as I still have some value as a human being.”

—PEI student, 2017