Goucher Prison Education Partnership Opens First-Ever Dedicated College Classrooms in a Maryland Prison

The Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP), a division of Goucher College, unveiled the state’s first prison classrooms created solely for college use at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (Jessup, MD). GPEP is a national leader for college in prison, and this project marks a significant milestone toward allowing students to become full-time students and providing a faster path to a completed bachelor’s degree. GPEP is one of 38 programs nationally offering access to a BA to incarcerated students and is one of the very few college prison programs to include women students.  

“Since its inception in 2012, GPEP has been a national model for college in prison, and building the first college-only classrooms in prison in the state continues our momentum to innovate how we can best support students with high-quality in-person higher education,” said Ann Duncan, GPEP Executive Director. “Education is transformational, and with restored access to Pell grants, we continue to grow our enrollment, offer new pathways to full-time students, and are proud to celebrate our students’ success, with our first former GPEP student earning their master’s degree last year.”  

The new classrooms support efforts to increase degree completion, which in turn increases a student’s likelihood of securing meaningful employment upon returning home. College in prison has been proven to reduce recidivism by more than 70% and every $1 spent on education in prison saves taxpayers $5. The annual cost of imprisoning a person in Maryland is $60,000, but the cost to educate a GPEP student is only $9,000.  

In March 2024, U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin secured GPEP $355,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending funding to help pay for these two educational trailers.   

“With access to education, incarcerated individuals put themselves on a path to rebuild their lives and improve outcomes for their reentry after they finish serving their time. With federal funding we worked to secure, the Goucher Prison Education Partnership is bringing this opportunity directly to more Marylanders – opening the door to a meaningful second chance to make a positive impact in our communities,” said Senator Van Hollen, a member of the Appropriations Committee. 

The state of Maryland has demonstrated a strong commitment to college in prison. In 2024, Governor Wes Moore created the Prison Education Delivery Reform Commission, which is charged with developing recommendations on the impact of education on the criminal justice system using a data-driven approach to increase public safety. Two GPEP staff members were appointed to that commission.  

GPEP currently provides an excellent college education to 130 women and men incarcerated in Maryland prisons. The courses offered are the same as those on Goucher College’s main campus, and students earn a Goucher College bachelor’s degree. This semester, students are enrolled in a range of classes, including Writing Studies, Jewish American Studies, Dancing in the Past and Present: Romanticism and Beyond, Migration and Refugees in a Global World, African American Women Writers, Higher Education in America, Intermediate Spanish, and American Gothic.  

GPEP ensures that students who have been systematically and historically excluded from quality education are afforded access to one. Students are 77% people of color and 67% first generation.  

Led by Secretary Carolyn J. Scruggs, the Maryland Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services (DPSCS) has been an instrumental partner in supporting expanded access for students to GPEP classes and helping to make it possible for students to make college their full-time job. 

“The expansion of the Goucher Prison Education Partnership at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women underscores our unwavering commitment to transforming lives through the power of education,” said Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Carolyn J. Scruggs. “Education is one of the most effective tools we can offer to help individuals start anew and break cycles that may have once seemed predetermined. It transcends past mistakes and opens the door to second chances, allowing our incarcerated population to return to their communities as productive members of society.” 

The new educational trailers will enable the academic day to expand to 9:20 a.m. – 9 p.m. The spaces will host an average of five classes each day for approximately 60 students. The expanded classrooms allow students to transition from part-time to full-time, reducing the time to degree from nine years to four and a half, which is the average college completion time nationwide. 

For more information on GPEP, visit www.goucher.edu/gpep.