Urgency in a Slow System: Teaching with Intention Behind the Fence
Teaching with intention in a system that moves at a glacial pace is an art…one in which correctional educators are masters!
This Is Not a Regular Classroom (And That’s Okay)
There’s a moment in nearly every correctional educator’s journey when we look around our classroom—maybe mid-lockdown, mid-lesson, or mid-crisis—and think: This is not a regular classroom.
What We Miss When We Only Measure GEDs
Diplomas are a cause for celebration, no argument! But here’s the thing: if we only measure GEDs, we’re missing the deeper, quieter, harder-won successes.
Work-Ready but Not Life-Ready: Rethinking Our Approach to Employment Prep
When we assume people already know how to navigate life outside, we set them up. Teaching life-readiness is about equity. It’s about recognizing gaps in opportunity, exposure, and expectation—and doing something about it.
Recidivism Isn’t a Character Flaw: Let’s Talk About Second, Third, and Fourth Chances
Recidivism—the revolving door of re-arrest and re-incarceration—is often framed as a personal failure. Like someone didn’t try hard enough. But recidivism isn’t a character flaw. It’s a reflection of systems that offer shallow chances and expect deep transformation.
The Frontline of Hope: A Tribute to Correctional Educators
Correctional educators are often the unsung heroes of the education world. Often unrecognized, under-resourced, and faced with impossible odds, they show up, day after day, in one of the most challenging environments imaginable—and they teach.
Retreat, Reflect, Return
Our incarcerated students carry stories that matter. They deserve programming that respects their potential and sees their humanity. And the people doing that work—you, me, the folks showing up in prisons and jails with lesson plans and heart? We need care, too.
Mental Health in the Margins
Mental health in corrections can’t be an afterthought. It can’t live in the margins. When we invest in mental wellness—for students and staff—we’re not just making people feel better. We’re creating safer environments. We’re improving outcomes. We’re building communities that don’t have to keep coming back through the revolving door.
What We Plant Today: Spring Lessons from Correctional Classrooms
Spring reminds us that growth is never instant. It’s a slow, steady push upward. A process. A promise.
Graduation Season, Without the Cap and Gown
From kindergarten to college, it’s a season of ceremonies, of endings and beginnings, and of well-earned celebration. But there’s another kind of graduation happening this time of year—one that won’t be posted on Instagram or announced in the family group chat.
This Mother's Day, Let's Remember the Mothers Behind Bars
This Mother’s Day, while many of us are celebrating with our families, let’s also hold space for the mothers behind bars—the ones reading bedtime stories over the phone, the ones missing their babies’ first steps, and the ones trying to heal.
Opera in Prison? Getting Inside with Your Program Idea
If you want to do work inside a jail or prison—if you want to bring your passion, your talent, your gift to people who are incarcerated—you have to understand this: the gate only opens when you follow the rules.
Expectations, Second Chances, and What They Really Mean
We throw around phrases like “second chances” and “fresh starts,” but what do they mean when put to the test?
☕ Sunday Morning Coffee: Passion Projects & Prison Classrooms
Nurturing passion is one of the most important gifts we can give a young person. And that’s true whether they're in a suburban high school, a GED program in jail, or a reentry support group in a halfway house.
Why Motivation and Engagement Are Essential in Correctional Education
Education is a proven pathway to opportunity, but for justice-impacted learners, staying motivated and engaged presents unique challenges. Technology can open the door to motivation, inspiration, and aspiration for these learners!
The Importance of a Work Community
Community isn’t just a noun—it’s something you do.
The Power of Naming
How Identifying Your Emotions Supports Wellbeing
Supporting Student Wellbeing
Every educator—whether in a traditional classroom or behind the walls of a correctional facility or at their dining room table—knows that student wellbeing is the foundation for meaningful learning.
Prison Labor: Exploitation or Opportunity?
Every so often, the topic of prison labor comes up in the national conversation, and it’s usually framed as one of two extremes: either a modern form of slavery or a valuable rehabilitative tool. Like most things in life (and in corrections), the reality is more complex. So, grab your coffee, and let’s take a balanced look at the pros and cons of incarcerated labor.
The Ripple Effect of Wellbeing
When we nurture wellbeing in ourselves, it extends outward—to our colleagues, our students, and our communities.