Member Spotlight

The Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI) seeks to bridge Princeton University’s academic and service-driven missions by providing the highest quality postsecondary education to incarcerated students in New Jersey; offering Princeton University graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and staff innovative, evidence-based pedagogy training and the chance to diversity their teaching portfolios through intensive classroom experiences; and fostering a robust campus dialogue on mass incarceration and its relationship to systemic inequalities in access to education.

It accomplishes this three-fold mission in partnership with Raritan Valley Community College, Mercer County Community College, the New Jersey Department of Corrections, the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix, and the New Jersey Scholarship for Transformative Education in Prisons (NJ-STEP) consortium. Each year, approximately 150 volunteers teach 50–60 classes and provide additional tutoring services for thousands of hours in a joint pursuit to achieve education for all. PTI is also a founding member of the Princeton University Prison-Engaged Network, a collaborative group that seeks to bridge the work of multiple organizations and individuals on Princeton’s campus aiming to promote high-quality prison education and reform of carceral practices in the United States.