WHY TEACH IN PRISON

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​​Approximately 95 percent of all inmates in New Jersey prisons will be released. In addition to providing intellectual engagement during incarceration and improving job prospects after release, in-prison education provides a positive social network, support system, and commitment schedule that helps inmates readjust to life outside of prison. In particular, access to post-secondary education while incarcerated has been shown to drastically reduce an individual’s chances of returning to prison after release.

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"I am a teacher and a pretty good one, but it took teaching in the NJ prisons to show me the truly enormous importance of what we do in the classroom. It's very rewarding teaching Princeton's wonderful students, but the stakes are so much higher with the prison students. These young men and women have almost all received pathetically little education, have been born into impoverished circumstances, and lived in a situation in which they were quite likely to end up incarcerated. Yet they are as curious and intellectually capable as any of us, and as desperate for education." GK, PTI Instructor & Leadership Committee Member

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"The students I have taught through this program have been among the most dedicated I have ever worked with. In these (pre-algebra through pre-calculus) classes, my students represent a very different cross-section of society from those at Columbia and Princeton. Teaching through PTI has, therefore, made me more sensitive to the wide range of learning styles that exists -- e.g., encouraging these students to talk about their thought processes and to work problems out themselves on the board tends to be even more important than it is with Ivy League students. This experience has been both immensely gratifying and occasionally heartbreaking. The students tend to be very good students, active in participation and devoted."

DS, PTI Instructor

 

"Maya Angelou wrote about why the caged bird sings, but I insist that the educational opportunities given to the incarcerated places a much greater part in societal rehabilitation than a song."

JC, PTI Instructor

 

"[Teaching in prison] gives me a chance to step outside the privileged community of Princeton and interact with a group of enthusiastic, but severely under-served, kids whose sense of wonder hasn't been limited by the prison gates."

MLV, PTI Instructor

 

"Teaching in prison was certainly a wonderful and inspiring experience. In addition to the great benefit to the inmates (who, besides the learning itself, were able to gain so much self-esteem!), I think that the teachers benefit a lot, too. Personally, I didn't realized how privileged I was until I saw the inmates being so grateful about our work. It also taught me how, with some creativity, people can use their skills to help others in unconventional ways and have great impact." MR, PTI Instructor

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"Nothing is more challenging than teaching fractions to men who haven't seen a number in ten years, and nothing is more satisfying then the moment they get it."

JG, PTI Instructor