HU- NOW…You Know! The History of the Howard University Higher Education in Prison Programming

• In Event: Carceral Innovation at the Intersection of HBCU and Higher Education in Prison

Abstract

This presentation will highlight the history of the Higher Education in Prison (HEP)
Programming across all three campuses at Howard University and the HU Andrew Rankin
Memorial Chapel. This includes HEP courses and innovative programs offered through Howard
University’s Schools of Law, Divinity, Communications, Fine Arts and the College of Arts and
Sciences. Highlights of this historical presentation include snap shots of graduate seminars,
undergraduate classes, social justice panels, and student perspectives from incarcerated scholars,
campus participants and families of the incarcerated. HU-HEP partnerships have included the
Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the DC Department of Corrections (DCDOC), the Virginia
Department of Corrections (VADOC) and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services
(DYRS) detention facilities in Maryland and Washington, DC. To date, approximately one
thousand Howard students, alumni, faculty, incarcerated, and formerly incarcerated individuals
have participated in classes inside prisons, jails and detention facilities in D.C., Maryland and
Virginia. Howard University became the first HBCU to offer award winning post-secondary
education to incarcerated females, males, detained juveniles and their families, simultaneously.
In addition, cutting edge HEP courses that incorporate innovation and experiential learning
through study-away and global study abroad opportunities that include incarcerated scholars’
participation.

Author

• Bahiyyah MiAllah Muhammad, Howard University