Understanding effects of prison higher education

As part of a years-long partnership with Mount Tamalpais College (formerly the Prison University Project) at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, the Possibility Lab is examining whether and how higher education in prison (HEP) programs influence a range of prosocial outcomes, skills acquisition, civic engagement, and criminal legal system involvement.

Our current projects include inquiries on the following research questions:

Goals: Our research aims to deepen and expand our collective understanding of the impact of HEP programs by conducting holistic research that is consistent with higher education research more generally, and through participatory methods that are responsive to the unique needs of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students.

We are currently designing a resource toolkit that aims to support the work of other HEP researchers and HEP programs. These resources include a process documentation of a longitudinal survey with Mount Tamalpais College that assessed the impact of higher education in prison on student outcomes and outlines on how we have integrated participatory research methods into our work.

Timeline:We conducted focus groups of HEP alumni during the summer of 2025. These sessions focused on how participating in HEP programs influenced their reentry experiences. Participants also engaged in workshops to offer feedback on research questions and propose their own.

This work will inform the design of a HEP alumni reconnection survey, currently scheduled to launch in early 2026, and our resource toolkits for the field, currently scheduled for early 2027.

Prison yards are some of the most segregated institutions in America, and racial divisions can determine where an individual sleeps, and with whom they live, eat, and socialize during incarceration. A new article in the journal Law & Social Inquiry authored by Lab researchers Meredith Sadin, Amy E. Lerman, and Ben J. Fils explores how higher education behind bars can shift racial attitudes and foster meaningful integration. Drawing on original longitudinal survey data, interviews, and course records, this study highlights the transformative power of classroom spaces to challenge prison’s entrenched racial norms.

Possibility Lab Executive Director, Professor Amy E. Lerman and our Undergraduate Research Fellow, John (Chan) Lam joined NBC Bay Area’s Race in America series for a critical conversation about how education is helping to end the cycle of incarceration inside California’s San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.