Alliance for Higher Education in Prison

10/08/2026

🎓 Here are just a few moments from last year’s Incarcerated Scholars Conference. ISC is our annual, virtual event that showcases academic presentations and creative works by people in prison.

You can be a part of this groundbreaking initiative, too!

Join us October 28–29 for the third ISC. Registration is free and open now: https://bit.ly/4cfjE5b

10/06/2026

⏰ Reminder: Applications to review proposals for NCHEP 16 close Monday, October 12!

There's still time to help shape the program for the upcoming National Conference on Higher Education in Prison.

📅 Review window (using a provided rubric): November 1–10
✍️ Apply by Monday, Oct. 12: https://bit.ly/4rk763O

Don't miss your chance to lend your perspective and expertise. We'd love to have you on board!

10/05/2026

🎉 Registration is now open for ISC 2026!

Join us October 28th and 29th for the third annual Incarcerated Scholars Conference: two days of scholarly presentations and creative works centering the voices of currently incarcerated learners, graduates, and artists.

This virtual conference is free and open to the public.

Don't wait! Register today and learn more about the conference on our website!
👉 https://bit.ly/4cfjE5b

10/01/2026

🤝 NCHEP brings together educators, advocates, students, formerly incarcerated leaders, and more! We offer a limited number of financial aid packages to ensure that those in need of financial support are still able to attend and contribute to the conversation.

Applications for financial aid for NCHEP 16 close November 15, 2026.

Apply here: https://bit.ly/4ymluee

09/25/2026

Wondering where your work might fit at the upcoming National Conference on Higher Education in Prison? The NCHEP 16 Call for Proposals is now open, and we're accepting presentations proposals on the following topic tracks connected to our overall theme of 'Anchored in Justice':

▪️ Humanities, Arts, and Intellectual Life
▪️ Reentry Models and Educational Continuity
▪️ System Alignment and Shared Infrastructure
▪️ The Public Narrative Challenge
▪️ Artificial Intelligence in HEP
▪️ Career, Technical, and Vocational Education
▪️ HEP Foundations
▪️ Teaching, Learning, and Academic Quality
▪️ Health, Healing, and HEP
▪️ Philanthropy and Foundation Funding for HEP

Whether you teach, lead a program, conduct research, bring lived experience, or support the field, we want to learn from your work.

📆 Proposals due November 1, 2026
🔗 https://bit.ly/4ct2su6

09/18/2026

Thanks to WCVB Channel 5 Boston for the additional coverage of news about our two new fellows through the Boston College Prison Education Program and a pilot program at MCI Shirley to offer work-based learning opportunities to people who are incarcerated. https://bit.ly/4rfZwHa

At MCI Shirley's medium-security prison, two incarcerated men are participating in a groundbreaking six-month remote work pilot program through the Boston College Prison Education Program.

09/15/2026

🔍 Want to support the upcoming National Conference on Higher Education in Prison and help shape the program? The Alliance is seeking reviewers for NCHEP 16 presentation proposals.

If selected as a reviewer, you will use a rubric provided by the Alliance to complete reviews between November 1st and November 10th.

Apply using this link by Monday, October 12th: https://bit.ly/4rk763O

09/15/2026

🔎 Looking for upcoming events related to higher education in prison?

Our events bulletin board is updated regularly with webinars, conferences, and other events happening across the country!

The page includes virtual and in-person events, as well as those hosted by us and others across the field.

Are you hosting an upcoming event? Please send it to us to be posted by clicking on "submit an event" on the top right of the webpage.

👉 https://bit.ly/3HCATlp

09/14/2026

Big news! At the beginning of September, we welcomed John Rodriguez as the Digital Communications Coordinator at the Alliance! 🎉

John brings to the role significant experience working with communities impacted by incarceration. This includes work on college campuses, in reentry, and in art-based programming in prisons. Over time, his work has shifted toward storytelling and shedding light on individuals' lived experience. At the Alliance, among many other things, he will continue this work, playing a crucial role in the organization's narrative initiatives.

We're thrilled to have him on the team. Please join us in giving him a warm welcome! 🙌

09/04/2026

🌟 Read our new NCHEP Impact Report!

This April, we celebrated the 15th gathering of the National Conference on Higher Education in Prison in Cleveland. What started with fewer than 100 people in 2010 has now become the largest regular conference focused on higher education in prison in the country.

Respondents to this year's exit survey consistently described NCHEP as a vital and sustaining space for a community facing demanding emotional, political, and financial work. These findings reveal a maturing field grappling with productive tensions (between expanding access and deepening quality, centering lived experience and welcoming dissenting viewpoints, and the conference as a professional convening and its emerging function as field-wide infrastructure).

The report is intended as a resource for reflection and as a guide for future conference planning and field development. In many ways, the findings here reinforce the Alliance’s mission: to build and support the field-wide infrastructure necessary to advance access and excellence in higher education in prison.

Read the full report here: https://bit.ly/4qC2c1u