Since we announced our Justice-in-Education Initiative in early May 2015, the press has taken note of this important work seeking to educate populations inside prisons and those who have been previously incarcerated.

Coverage on the Initiative:

Grants Roundup: Jacobs Foundation Commits $52 Million to Education and to Women in Ivory Coast

Eden Stiffman included the Justice-in-Education Initiative in the weekly Grants Roundup in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: The foundation awarded $1 million over a three-year period to the Heyman Center for the Humanities and the Center for Justice at Columbia University to support the Justice-in-Education Initiative. The project, a collaboration with the Media and Idea Lab at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, aims to provide education to people who are or have been in prison and work to better integrate the study of justice into Columbia’s curriculum. More at Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Course Correction: College Behind Bars Gets a Big Boost

L.S. Hall, writing at Inside Philanthropy, points to the deterioration of funding from the federal government for prison education programs. He cites that "congress has not renewed funding for the 'Specter Funds,' a grant program named for the late U.S. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a former Republican and advocate of prison education, that funded higher education classes in prisons." Foundations, such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, see this as an opportunity to fund prison education programs that have lost federal support. More at Inside Philanthropy.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Funds New Justice-in-Education Initiative

Philanthropy New York also helped us get the word out about the Initiative by sharing with their network and readers.

The Justice-in-Education Initiative is made possible with generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.