Research and Evaluation

Read academic scholarship on our work at San Quentin State Prison. 

• Lerman, Amy E. "Best Practices for Evaluating Prison Higher Education" Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, 2018.
• Lerman, Amy E. and Jacob Grumbach. "The Prison University Project: Qualitative Evidence on the Impact of Prison Higher Education" University of California, Berkeley, 2016.
• Lerman, Amy E. "Prison University Project Program Evaluation Progress Report" Princeton University, 2012.

Please note: Prior to September 2020, Mount Tamalpais College was known as the Prison University Project.

The following list contains additional scholarship on higher education in prison.

• Ajinkya, Julie and Michael Scott Brick. 2020. "Supporting Success: The Higher Education in Prison Key Performance Indicator Framework." Institute for Higher Education Policy, September 2020.
• Barton, Paul and R. Coley. 2006. “Locked Up and Locked Out: An Educational Perspective on the US Prison Population.” Educational Testing Service, Policy Evaluation and Research Center. Princeton, NJ. February 2006.
• Eugene, Tobin. 2016. "Higher Education Has Given Me My Humanity Back," Shared Experiences Blog, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. October 2016.
• Fabelo, Tony. 2000. “Impact of Educational Achievement of Inmates in the Windham School District on Recidivism.” Criminal Justice Policy Council, State of Texas, August 2000.
• Harer, Miles D. 1995. “Prison Education Program Participation and Recidivism: A Test of the Normalization Hypothesis,” Federal Bureau of Prisons, Office of Research and Evaluation, May 1995.
• Kling, Jeffrey and John. Tyler 2006. “Prison-Based Education and Re-Entry into the Mainstream Labor Market.” Brown University, National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, National Bureau of Economic Research. June 2006.
• Lewen, Jody. 2014. "Prison Higher Education and Social Transformation." St. Louis University Public Law Review 33.
• Murillo, Danny. 2021. "The Possibility Report: From Prison to College Degrees in California." The Campaign for College Opportunity. February, 2021.
• Petersilia, Joan. 2005. “Prisons Can Be Cages or Schools.” Los Angeles Times. October 16, 2005.
• Steurer, S. J., Smith, L., & Tracy, A. 2001. “Education Reduces Crime: Three-State Recidivism Study.” Lanham, Maryland: Correctional Education Association.
• Open Society Institute. 1997. "Education as Crime Prevention: Providing Education to Prisoners.” Occasional Paper Series, no. 2, (September).
• Vacca, James S. 2004. “Educated Prisoners are Less Likely to Return to Prison.” Journal of Correctional Education 55, no 4 (December).
• Werth, Robert and Jennifer Mary Sumner. 2006. “Inside California’s Prisons and Beyond: A Snapshot of In-Prison and Re-Entry Programs.” Irvine, CA: Center for Evidence-Based Corrections.
• Western, Bruce, V. Schiraldi and J. Ziedenberg. 2003. “Education and Incarceration.” Justice Policy Institute.