Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Donate to our newsroom

Menu

Topics

  • Abortion
  • Politics
  • Education
  • LGBTQ+
  • Caregiving
  • Environment & Climate
  • Business & Economy
View all topics

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

  • Latest Stories
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Ways to Give
  • Search
  • Contact
Donate
Home

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

Topics

  • Abortion
  • Politics
  • Education
  • LGBTQ+
  • Caregiving
  • Environment & Climate
  • Business & Economy
View all topics

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

  • Latest Stories
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Ways to Give
  • Search
  • Contact

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Education

Illinois women’s prison offers a new chance at a degree

A program by Northwestern University addresses a gender gap in education for incarcerated people.

Incarcerated women in the midst of a group discussion in a classroom.
Northwestern’s first women's cohort in its prison education program included 20 students taking classes like expository writing, sociology, philosophy and STEM. (Courtesy of Monika Wnuk for Northwestern)

Candice Norwood

Reporter

Published

2022-01-03 11:01
11:01
January 3, 2022
am

Republish this story

Share

  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Email

Republish this story

Prison education programs across the country have long overlooked incarcerated women, offering fewer courses and degree options. 

Northwestern University is hoping to change that. Last spring, the university expanded its three-year-old prison education program to include incarcerated women.

At Logan Correctional Center, Shawnette Green greeted the opportunity with enthusiasm. Green, who has been incarcerated at Logan since 2013, participated in the federally-funded Upward Bound education program that allowed her to attend Loyola University Chicago for a summer when she was a child. Now 45, she had always envisioned attending college and was excited to be accepted as part of the first women cohort of Northwestern’s program that began taking classes in March 2021.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

“Being from the Chicagoland area, Northwestern was always one of those schools that you just dreamed of,” Green told The 19th in a phone call from Logan Correctional Center. “So immediately when we heard the name and knew that we were going to have the opportunity, we were just really elated and enthusiastic.”

Portrait of Shawnette Green
Shawnette Green has embraced the level of rigor she gets from the Northwestern program at Logan Correctional Center. (Courtesy of Monika Wnuk/Northwestern)

Northwestern’s expansion is part of a broader nationwide push for quality education in correctional centers.

Historically women have comprised a small proportion of the total incarcerated population, which means investments in prison programming tend to focus on men. Women make up about 10 percent of people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the United States, according to government data from 2018. Though the number of incarcerated women is growing at a rate outpacing men, correctional programming for women is lagging.

For example, a 2018 report from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition found that incarcerated women in Texas had access to an associate degree program and certifications in two occupations: office administration and culinary arts/hospitality management. Men could choose from an associate, associate of applied science, bachelor’s, or master’s degree programs, as well as 21 job certificates.

“I just can’t tell you how many prison education programs I know where they just don’t have any women in their program,” said Jennifer Lackey, a professor of philosophy and director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program. “In our men’s prisons, there have been a lot more challenging high-level educational opportunities for the men than there are for the women.”

For people with longer sentences, those educational opportunities are even more limited, said Erika Ray, 40, who has been incarcerated at Logan since 2010. Those with shorter sentences are typically given priority for classes, she said.

Portrait of Erika Ray
Erika Ray pointed out that people with shorter sentences get priority for education programs. (Courtesy of Monika Wnuk/Northwestern)

Recently, calls for robust criminal justice reform have prompted more colleges, companies and foundations to invest in degree or certificate programs for incarcerated people. In December 2020, Congress lifted a 26-year ban on Pell Grants for incarcerated students. In 2021, thanks to new grant funding, universities like Northwestern and Washington University in St. Louis  developed programs that offer incarcerated women not only quality classes but also courses with credits that they can use toward a degree. 

Northwestern’s first women cohort included 20 students taking classes like expository writing, sociology, philosophy and STEM. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the launch of the program last spring was limited to teaching courses by mail correspondence. That has since expanded to hybrid Zoom and in-person classes. Mary Pattillo, a sociology professor with Northwestern and instructor with the prison education program, said she used the same syllabus and assignments that she does with other Northwestern students. Pattillo noted how the maturity and range of life experiences of the women at Logan Correctional Center adds layers to the classroom discussions that she may not see at Northwestern’s main campus in Evanston, Illinois.

Pattillo’s class was among Green’s favorites; she said she sees a difference in the level of challenge and rigor she gets from the Northwestern program compared with other courses she has taken at Logan. Lackey hopes Northwestern can help lead the way for other schools to broaden educational offerings for incarcerated women, and that it’s important to treat their Northwestern students in prison as they would students in Evanston.

Sign up for more news and context delivered to your inbox, daily

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

Preview of the daily newsletter from The 19th

Criminal justice experts have told The 19th that trauma-informed services aimed at rehabilitation, including higher education, can assist with harm reduction while women are incarcerated and lead to better outcomes for them when they are released. About 75 percent of formerly incarcerated people will be rearrested within five years of their release, Lackey said. Prison education can reduce recidivism by 43 percent depending on the level of courses.

Additionally, incarcerated women are more likely than men to report experiencing sexual violence or mental health challenges in their past, experiences that are often linked to committing crimes and entering the criminal legal system. Supporting better education for incarcerated women and beyond is crucial to bridging opportunity gaps and helping people live productively, Green added. 

“Having experienced sexual abuse at a young age, it really does change you. It’s like moving your entire identity, and then you don’t really know at what point in life you will come to yourself or rediscover you,” Green said. “I believe overall education is a huge part of creating people who feel more confident in themselves, feel more capable and, therefore, present as a better version of themselves in life.”

“I think that that is one of the powers of education, you feel like you deserve the best of everything when you have people believing in you, but then being able to believe in yourself,” Ray said.

Republish this story

Share

  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Email

Recommended for you

In Texas prisons, men have access to significantly more higher education programs than women
Three female inmates wearing orange and white striped prison uniforms sit on a bench.
More women are serving life sentences. Experts are trying to determine why.
The forgotten history of America’s first public women’s prison
An image of a imprisoned woman sinking in water in her jail cell.
Trauma on top of trauma: why more women are dying in jails

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

Become a member

Explore more coverage from The 19th
Abortion Politics Education LGBTQ+ Caregiving
View all topics

Our newsroom's Spring Member Drive is here!

Learn more about membership.

  • Transparency
    • About
    • Team
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Community Guidelines
  • Newsroom
    • Latest Stories
    • 19th News Network
    • Podcast
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Fellowships
  • Newsletters
    • Daily
    • Weekly
    • The Amendment
    • Event Invites
  • Support
    • Ways to Give
    • Sponsorship
    • Republishing
    • Volunteer

The 19th is a reader-supported nonprofit news organization. Our stories are free to republish with these guidelines.