The Elevating Connection of Higher Education in Prison: An Incarcerated Student’s Perspective

The author of this paper has lived in Georgia prisons for over ten years and has benefited from higher educational programs while incarcerated. He draws from limited Internet access behind a firewall, personal interviews with other incarcerated students, and personal experience. This essay intends to convey postsecondary education’s benefits for incarcerated citizens. It explores higher education’s ability to shift the perspectives of its incarcerated students, aid in their personal development, and prepare them for their futures whether in or out of prison. The primary purpose of higher education in prison should not be to reduce recidivism, although that may be a welcomed side effect; it should be to elevate the incarcerated students. College-in-prison programming not only elevates the students, it elevates society as well by creating a criminal justice paradigm that more accurately reflects our society’s love of freedom. This essay also explores limited Internet access in prison as a means to facilitate higher education.