First State First Chance UD Prison Education Program

2022-2023 UDARI Committee Grant Award Winner

The First State Chance committee used UD Anti-Racism Initiative funding to support two initiatives related to racism and the criminal legal system. The first project supported prison education, including inside/out and other mini-courses that included both incarcerated students and University of Delaware students. Funds were used to support faculty as well as provide tuition support for incarcerated students. The second project supported research on the experiences of abused Black and Latina women who were also criminal-legal system impacted. Funds were used to provide compensation for people who participated in the research as well as undergraduate student research assistants who helped with data collection and data analysis. The findings of this research are being used by the Delaware Family Court to improve their services to victims/survivors and will be presented at national conferences and published in peer reviewed journals.

 

Mission

To highlight the role of prison education in UD’s mandate. 

Goals

Expand course offerings from all colleges, partner with DSU and DelTech, and provide courses in all DE prisons.

Members

Co-chair: Earl Smith (Women & Gender Studies)
Co-chair: Dr. Jennifer Earl (Sociology & Criminal Justice)
Co-chair: Mackenzie Nineness

Membership for this committee is at capacity and is not accepting new members at this time.

  • Nada Abuasi (Criminal Justice/Political Science, Undergraduate Student)
  • Taylor Bucy (Psychology/Women’s Studies, Undergraduate Student)
  • Shannon Burke (Elementary Education, Undergraduate Student)
  • Charito Calvachi-Mateyko (Delaware Humanities)
  • Alexis Carel (Sociology & Criminal Justice, Undergraduate Student)
  • Katie Cirrito (Criminal Justice, Undergraduate Student)
  • Emily Davis (English)
  • Neri de Kramer-Lynch (Associate in Arts Program)
  • Nathan Elton (Career Services Center)
  • Jessica Estok (Student Wellness & Health Promotion)
  • Adam Foley (Office of Equity & Inclusion)
  • Gracie Girvalo (Political Science, Undergraduate Student)
  • Chad Giusti (Mathematical Sciences)
  • Carla Guerron-Montero (Anthropology)
  • Angela Hattery (Women & Gender Studies)
  • Paul Jackson (Geography)
  • Tara Kee (Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program)
  • Aaya Kingsbury (History, Graduate Student)
  • Marissa Kiss (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute for Immigration Research)
  • Katheryn Lawson (History, PhD Student)
  • Jules Lowman (Undergraduate Student)
  • Helen Mach (Communication Sciences & Disorders Postdoc)
  • Michael Miller (Development & Alumni Relations)
  • Sarah Meadows (IT Strategic Operations)
  • Susan Miller (Sociology & Criminal Justice)
  • Katie Mirance-Popelka (Sociology PhD Student)
  • Alan Parkes (History, PhD Student)
  • Graciela Perez (Criminology, PhD Student)
  • Keerthi Potluri (English)
  • Autumn Potter (Sociology, Undergraduate Student)
  • Michelle Richards (Human Devlopment & Family Services, Early Childhood Education)
  • Eric Rise (Sociology & Criminal Justice)
  • Rachel Rohman (Criminal Justice/Public Policy, Undergraduate Student)
  • Nicholas Russell  (Applied Mathematics, PhD Student)
  • Gilberto Schleiniger (Mathematical Sciences)
  • Lawson Schultz (Undergraduate Student)
  • Michele Schwander (Biomedical Engineering)
  • Sowmya Shankar (IT Enterprise Cloud & Services)
  • Earl Smith (Associate of Arts Program/Women & Gender Studies)
  • David Suisman (History)
  • Casey Taylor (Biden School of Public Policy & Administration)
  • Andie Weaver (Applied Mathematics, PhD Student)

Committee Highlights

The First State First Chance prison education UDARI subcommittee has been steadily taking steps to offer incarcerated Delawareans opportunities to earn college credit and, ultimately, an Associate in Arts (AA) degree.  In this project, subcommittee member Prof. Keerthi Potluri synthesizes her experience teaching correspondence-only sections of English 110 in order to support instructors across the University of Delaware’s campuses in offering their courses to students incarcerated throughout Delaware and ensuring those students better access to their degree pathways. It brings together a number of practices and pedagogical activities that accommodate incarcerated students’ limited access to typical classroom technologies and resources in order to build a course experience that is consistent for all students and manageable for the instructor.