In the thesis “From Mass Incarceration to Mass Education: Fostering Collaborations Between State Prisons and State Universities” the author backs up her text analysis with data from different surveys as well as academic sources, helping her to provide a well-researched overview of the history of carceral education, and to shed light on institutional and systemic racism in schools and the criminal justice system. By providing data on economic and workforce needs, the author outlines the benefits of correctional education, which are reduced rates of recidivism and successful employment post-release. The main argument of the thesis is that public universities such as CUNY and SUNY have a responsibility to provide education for incarcerated people, thus helping to dismantle structural racism in general.

Throughout the paper, the author uses charts that reflect numbers in funding resources and give an overview of the correctional systems that offer credential degrees. Since she makes use of many numbers in the text, I thought she applied these tables well to support the most important aspects of her argument. However, I thought she could have used diagrams and graphic representations to highlight these numbers more effectively. In the final chapter, the thesis introduces a model for a NY-statewide program of partnerships between state prisons and public as well as state universities that provide fully developed college degree programs in every state prison, which is crucial to her argument. Using a Google map that shows the locations of state prisons and CUNY/SUNY campuses, the author emphasizes and visualizes the geographical feasibility of these partnerships, which supports her model. Finally, for the program model, she makes use of a graphic representation of the main components that underline the needed collaboration of the state prison and the state’s public university systems as well as emphasize the valuable outcomes for incarcerated people and the system overall. By combining text with images and icons, the figure gives a simple and easy to understand overview of how this program would and should work, and effectively visualizes her whole argument. Thus, I think the format of this thesis makes its content very accessible to the audiences it serves.