My name is Elliot. Since January of 2019, I have been running a reading group at the Utah State Prison-Lone Peak Facility. We meet 8 times a semester to read 8 books. Each semester is designed around a theme voted on by the group. This reading group is part of a broad array of higher education opportunities made possible by the Utah Prison Education Project (check out the site, there’s a lot going on and many ways to help!) It’s the highlight of my week.
Utah Prison Education Project
Mission: Through a commitment to social transformation, UPEP advances educational equity through on-site higher education, empirical research, and advocacy. Please see the official website, here.
History: In 2016-2017, the University of Utah Honors College sponsored a yearlong Praxis Lab course titled, Education, Incarceration, and Justice. The undergraduate course was designed to examine university affiliated college-in-prison programs throughout the country, prison-university partnerships, and best practices in the field. They studied mission statements and philosophies, funding structures, organizational charts, admissions procedures, memoranda of understandings between prisons and universities, and much more. They consulted with the UDC and various administrative leaders at the University of Utah. They attended the 6th Annual Higher Education in Prison Conference in Nashville, TN and met with directors of some of the most well respected college-in-prison programs throughout the country. The final project of the Praxis Lab was the development and launch of the UPEP in spring 2017. Dr. Erin Castro and the students in the Praxis Lab are Co-Founders of UPEP. They are indebted to the Honors College at the University of Utah for its early and ongoing support. And the Lone Peak Book Club is happy to be a part of UPEP.
