Bringing Classrooms to Prisons

Chris Bonneau

“I basically have to work two weeks in advance all the time,” says Chris Bonneau, political science professor in the Dietrich School. He must send hard copies of reading materials to students early. And if he gets to the classroom and realizes he forgot something? Too bad. 

That’s because, by design, once you have entered a prison, you cannot come and go as you please.

Bonneau co-founded the Prison Education Program (PEP) in 2016. The program offers courses on a variety of subjects for 32 students, 16 from Pitt and 16 from one of the four prisons that the program works with, including its original partner, State Correctional Institution Fayette in La Belle, Pennsylvania.

In many ways, his PEP classes are just like any other. He teaches the same subjects, and all students get college credits. In other ways, however, PEP classes are unlike anything most people will ever experience.

PEP participation has grown—not just in the number of institutions, but also in the number of instructors. From anthropology and English to music and law, the offerings continue to expand, strengthening ties with parts of local communities that have historically been ignored.