The Northwestern Insider is, for many Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) students, a long time coming. Inspired by other publications they’ve contributed to, the Northwestern Insider aims to be a place where NPEP students can write personal essays, poems, critiques, reviews, fiction, and more. The intention is to publish the Northwestern Insider on a quarterly
Sheila A. Bedi is a clinical professor of law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and director of the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, a law school clinic that provides students with the opportunities to work within social justice movements on legal and policy strategies aimed at redressing over-policing and mass imprisonment. Bedi
Gerpha Gerlin is a graduate student at Northwestern University, currently seeking her doctorate in anthropology and her master’s degree in public health. She expects to graduate in 2026. One of the reasons Gerlin chose Northwestern is because of the Northwestern Prison Education Program, where she is a member of the program’s wellness team. “I’ve in
On January 24, 2024, NPEP Justice Fellow Heather Canuel hosted a panel event at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law titled, “Expecting Justice: Pregnancy in Prisons.” Watch the panel in the link below. In the realm of criminal justice reform, certain narratives often go unnoticed, and stories untold. One such narrative is the complex and
Story by Anthony Ehlers; Photos by Monika Wnuk Anthony Ehlers is a Communications Fellow for the Northwestern Prison Education Program and a recent graduate with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Northwestern University. Before James Soto was released from Stateville Correctional Center, Anthony interviewed him to talk about his experience as the longest-serving wrongfully convicted
The author and journalist will address the first incarcerated students to receive bachelor’s degrees from a top 10 university Award-winning author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates will deliver the commencement address for the Northwestern Prison Education Program. This graduation marks the first time incarcerated students in the United States will be conferred a bachelor’s degree from
Anthony Ehlers is a Communications Fellow for the Northwestern Prison Education Program and a recent graduate with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Northwestern University. In 2002, Anthony’s sentence was commuted from the death penalty to life in prison. He is currently incarcerated at Sheridan Correctional Center. He wrote the following essay to commemorate World
Ahead of the launch of her collection of poetry, “42 and Freedom,” at The Sweden Shop in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood on August 27, NPEP Logan student Erika Ray shared more about the ideas behind the collection and how it came about. Responses have been edited for length and clarity. Tell us about “42
In the fall of 2022, Professor Mary Pattillo taught a course for Cohort 1 at Stateville on qualitative research methods, and each student was required to write an interview guide. One student, Tony Triplett, wrote a guide to interview Pattillo, to which she happily obliged. In her responses to Triplett’s questions — found below —
The following is an excerpt from NPEP’s Summer 2023 newsletter. You can read the full newsletter here. Dear NPEP community, Welcome to the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) newsletter! Since celebrating our first and second cohorts as they graduated with their associate degrees from Oakton College last year at Stateville Correctional Center, we’ve welcomed 45
