Leveraging the Power of Self-organized Learning Communities in Correctional Facilities

• In Event: Supporting Educational Access Among Learners who are Incarcerated: Lessons Learned from Programming, Data Collection, and Assessment

Abstract

Students on traditional college campuses have access to peer tutoring, writing workshops, faculty office hours, and English language support. These interventions and resources are key to improving student retention and success. Yet, they remain exceedingly rare inside carceral spaces, despite the great need. In response to these challenges, incarcerated people have long self-organized, creating study groups, peer-tutoring programs, and English language support groups. These experiences contribute to creating powerful native, self-organized learning communities. This presentation will discuss the experience of the Petey Greene Program (PGP) in fostering these learning communities through an “inside tutor program”. Through this initiative, the PGP provides formal tutor training and professional development to incarcerated scholars with longer sentences, who often have exhausted all other available educational opportunities. Trained incarcerated tutors are then paired with outside tutors to support other incarcerated learners enrolled in the PGP’s college readiness programs. This model provides opportunities for incarcerated and non-incarcerated scholars to engage as peers, recognizing and centering the pedagogical expertise of incarcerated people and harnessing the strength of self-organized learning communities inside correctional facilities.

Author

• Chiara Benetollo, The Petey Greene Program