University Hosts Discussion of Prison Education Initiative

The University of Scranton hosted panel discussion about the Jesuit university’s Prison Education Initiative on campus during the spring semester.

Inspired by the work of Gregory Boyle, S.J., the founder of Homeboy Industries, The University of Scranton’s Prison Education Initiative seeks to provide inmates in Northeastern Pennsylvania with an Associate of Arts degree in just over three years. The program, directed by Chris Haw, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology/religious studies at Scranton, hopes to build foundations upon which inmates can continue their education.

Panelists Dr. Haw and Christie Karpiak, Ph.D., professor of psychology, discussed their experience teaching at the State Correctional Institution, SCI-Dallas, in Luzerne County; and Jeff Gingerich, Ph.D., then provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Scranton, spoke on the subject of mass incarceration. Darryl Byers-Robinson, an alumnus of the Bard Prison Initiative, who starred in “College Behind Bars,” also participated in the discussion as a guest-speaker.

Pictured below are several professors at The University of Scranton who have taught at the State Correctional Institution, SCI—Dallas in Luzerne County through the Jesuit university’s Prison Education Initiative. From left are some of the professors who have participated in the Prison Education Initiative: Declan Mulhall, Ph.D., professor of physics and electrical engineering; Christie Karpiak, Ph.D., professor of psychology; Darryl Byers-Robinson, Alumnus of Bard Prison Initiative, guest speaker at a panel discussion about the initiative; and Will Cohen, Ph.D., professor of theology/religious studies.