Bold statement: Education inside prison is not just a reform idea—it’s a pathway to safer communities, stronger families, and real possibilities after release. And this is the part most people miss: a dedicated, researcher-led center can transform how society views and supports incarcerated students. Here’s how the story unfolds.
A University of Utah research team has secured $8 million to establish the nation’s first center solely devoted to studying prison education and leadership. The funding, provided by the Ascendium Education Group, will fund the Prison Education Action Research Lab (PEARL), a hub aimed at advancing educational equity for people affected by incarceration and the communities around them.
The project marks a landmark shift in where and how prison education is researched. By placing PEARL within the U.’s College of Education, the effort adopts a disciplinary and pedagogical approach that treats incarcerated individuals as college students, rather than as offenders. Erin Castro, co-founder of the Utah Prison Education Project and associate professor of educational leadership and policy, described the milestone as “huge” and noted that the significance is still sinking in.
Castro has spent more than a decade focusing on prison higher education and pathways to postsecondary opportunities after release. The Utah Prison Education Project—an initiative to promote educational equity through on-site higher education, research, and advocacy—laid the groundwork for PEARL. In 2023, Castro previously received a $750,000 grant from Ascendium to support planning for the lab.
PEARL’s three main aims shape its strategy:
- Create and deliver an online credential for prison education program leaders and practitioners, led by PEARL’s director of teaching and learning, Paméla Cappas-Toro.
- Demonstrate high-quality programming through existing initiatives like the Utah Prison Education Project and the STEM Community Alliance Program, directed by Andy Eisen, PEARL’s director of prison education.
- Launch the Prison Education Research Initiative, a pioneering multi-institutional study designed to answer urgent policy and practice questions about prison education.
The Prison Education Research Initiative will be led by Castro and Jason Taylor, associate professor of educational leadership and policy. It will gather systematic, longitudinal data on a diverse array of prison education programs, their student bodies, and outcomes, in collaboration with at least 22 other higher education institutions.
Castro emphasizes that access to postsecondary education during incarceration increases the odds that individuals will find living-wage, dignified employment upon release. This not only helps them support themselves and their families but also enables them to address debts and other needs more effectively.
A key goal is to examine academic indicators for incarcerated students—such as enrollment, GPA, and completion rates—and to understand their experiences in higher education. While these benchmarks exist for non-incarcerated students across various identities, they are not yet consistently available for incarcerated students. PEARL’s baseline research aims to fill that gap.
Beyond individual outcomes, Castro highlights broader societal benefits: expanding higher education access for incarcerated people can influence community safety and, importantly, raise the educational aspirations of their children.
As PEARL grows, its findings are expected to inform policymakers at both state and federal levels. Castro notes ongoing legislative movement and collaboration with Utah System of Higher Education (USHE), suggesting strong opportunities to elevate college-in-prison work within Utah and beyond.
Overall, PEARL represents a bold, evidence-driven effort to reimagine prison education as a serious, research-backed pathway to opportunity. Do you agree that expanding higher education in prisons can transform families and communities, or are there counterpoints worth debating? Share your thoughts in the comments.
