A Cornell University initiative that brings college-level education into prisons has secured a $1.5 million grant to expand its reach far beyond New York State, creating a national infrastructure for research on higher education behind bars.
The Cornell Prison Education Program announced it will use the three-year grant from Ascendium Education Group — a nonprofit focused on postsecondary education for low-income learners — to launch two major initiatives: a national research consortium and an upgraded data management tool used by prison education programs across the country.
The stakes, program leaders say, are significant. Millions of incarcerated Americans are being offered pathways to college, yet the field lacks the coordinated research needed to understand what’s working and what isn’t.
“Higher education is one of, if not the, major mode of reform that America is trying in prison,” said Rob Scott, CPEP’s executive director. “Thousands and thousands of people in prisons are being offered a pathway to college. It just beckons us to really pay attention to all the complexity that’s in there.”
The first initiative, called the Partnership for the Advancement of Prison Education Research — or PAPER — formally launched April 8 with a symposium in Cleveland that drew more than 100 researchers. The consortium aims to foster collaboration, tackle thorny questions around data collection and research ethics, and build a stronger advocacy presence on criminal justice issues. Scott said key research areas will include program completion rates, workforce outcomes after release, and recidivism.
“We’re seeing researchers speaking to each other and trying to help each other figure out how to do the best job we can with it,” Scott said.
The second initiative focuses on CPEP’s Education Justice Tracker, a tool the program designed, built and has maintained since 2022. The platform helps prison education providers monitor their students’ status within the correctional system — tracking transfers to other facilities, parole status and other changes that can abruptly upend a student’s academic progress.
That disruption is more common than many outside the system realize. State departments of corrections routinely transfer incarcerated students to other facilities — for court dates or mandatory programs — without notifying their educators. The consequences can be severe: a student pulled from class mid-semester may fail the course, default on the Pell Grant funding their education and lose eligibility for future financial aid.
“A tool like this can help higher ed in prison programs week by week, to make sure everyone’s in the right place,” Scott said. “Without a tool like this, there’s no other easy mechanism.”
Fourteen programs have adopted the tracker so far, including the SUNY system, which runs higher education programs in 34 of New York’s 41 prisons. Scott said the program is on track to double its user base within months.
Founded in 2001, CPEP operates in three correctional facilities in the region, offering a liberal arts curriculum taught by Cornell faculty and graduate students. Students earn credits toward an associate’s degree through SUNY Cayuga Community College, and advanced students can earn a Cornell Certificate in Liberal Arts.
The program’s ambitions are growing. In 2027, Cornell plans to offer a bachelor of professional studies degree through Cayuga Correctional Facility — making it the first Ivy League university to offer a degree to incarcerated students.
