EJP Policy & Research Team Application

The Education Justice Project (EJP) is a unit of the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a comprehensive college-in-prison program. The mission of EJP is to build a model college-in-prison program that demonstrates the positive effects of higher education on incarcerated students, their families, the communities to which they return, the host institution, and society as a whole. To accomplish this mission, EJP developed several programs and initiatives, including a Policy & Research Division.

The mission of EJP’s Policy & Research Division is to educate and equip relevant stakeholders with knowledge, skills, and confidence to produce research and practice civic engagement that promotes equity-focused and evidence-based policymaking related to higher education in prison, reentry, and other relevant issues. Our team is supported by members across the country who are passionate about creating a more just and humane world. We work together to challenge the dominant narrative around incarceration, mitigate the impacts of incarceration, support the creation of more humane and just responses to harm and violence, and allow college-in-prison programs to flourish only as long as prisons exist.