The UO Prison Education Program collects books year-round to donate to correctional facilities’ libraries. Popular topics include money management, nonfiction, and books of any genre in Spanish. The program will announce book drives and more donation opportunities...
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The Prison Education Program at the University of Oregon
The Prison Education Program was established in 2016, founded in response to an expansion from the Inside-Out classes that began at the UO in 2007. We are now active in offering classes, not-for-credit opportunities, and in working to advance educational opportunities for people who are incarcerated statewide.
In addition to offering for-credit classes inside the prisons, we also have a variety of not-for-credit activities, including:
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Book discussions, including bilingual discussions conducted in Spanish and English
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Academic workshops, including academic writing and communication skills
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A UO student internship and “alumni” program – students are involved in assisting with classes, running a discussion group at a juvenile facility, holding outreach events with at-risk youth, and running book drives to support prison education.
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Educational TV programming sent to all Oregon institutions through PEP TV
- Learning, Engagement, and Activities Packets (LEAP) and correspondence for people in special housing units
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Lectures by UO faculty on a wide variety of subjects
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Coordinated engagement between clubs at OSP and corresponding clubs at the UO
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On-campus an inside exhibitions of artwork by insiders donated to the program
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Book donations to multiple prisons, including special requests from staff at the prisons for particular subject areas and Spanish language materials
We work in an interdisciplinary academic framework, and with a broad range of students, campus organizations, community groups, and national organizations working to improve educational opportunities in prisons.
Book Donations
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Summer Courses
Though COVID paused face-to-face classes, the Prison Education Program has provided packet-format courses to inside students at Oregon State Penitentiary, Oregon State Correctional Institution, Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, and Deer Ridge Correctional...
Prison Education Program (PEP) Internship – Application due Sunday, May 29th
The Prison Education Program is recruiting student interns for the 2022 – 2023 academic year. Our interns help us with all elements of our program, providing support for in-person classes inside the prisons, distance learning, in-person events, communication,...
Celebrating 15 Years of Inside-Out at University of Oregon
On May 5th, over 40 members of the Prison Education Program community gathered together in person at the Ford Alumni Center to celebrate 15 years since the first Inside-Out class at University of Oregon . We heard heartfelt memories from alumni (both formerly...
Spring 2022 Correspondence Courses
This Spring, we offered 6 different courses at 3 institutions, serving over 75 inside students. Courses offered this term include: CHN 410/510 / A Reading and Discussion of the Great Imaginative Buddhist Novel Journey to the West (Xiyou ji) / Professor Stephen Durrant...
Follow us on Linked In!
We are excited to be joining the LinkedIn community and be able to update our alumni, supporters and more of our program’s growth and activity. Please follow us on LinkedIn and share our page with anyone who might be interested. Follow us on LinkedIn to...
The University of Oregon’s Prison Education Program stands against racism in all its forms – overt, unconscious, and systemic. We are committed to combating inequality and violence through conversations in our classes, our projects, and among ourselves.
We stand in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, recognizing the unequal violence and structural hardships faced by our Black students, neighbors, colleagues, and leaders.
We hope that in this moment greater equality can be achieved for all those who suffer discrimination and prejudice. We commit to being present in that fight.
One of the inspirations for Inside-Out’s pedagogy, Paolo Freire, uses the analogy that “we make the road by walking.” We as a society are making that way forward now – through protests in the streets, independent study, tough conversations, and interruption of violence and discrimination. We commit to continuing in that work – to use another quote that frequently appears in our programmatic conversations, “once you know, you owe.” The existence and impact of systemic racism is not new news to us, and we recommit ourselves to the ongoing work of social justice through education and dialogue.
