Schools Offering College Courses to Inmates - Maryland

Correctional Facility: Maryland Correctional Institution – Jessup (men’s facility) and Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (women’s facility)

College/University/Organization Partnership: GPEP is a division of Goucher College. Professors are primarily Goucher faculty but also include outstanding faculty from other universities and colleges.

City, State: Baltimore, MD

Year Founded: 2012

Population Served: Prospective students must be housed at MCIW or MCIJ in the general population of either prison (and thus able to attend on-site classes). Prospective students must also have a GED or high school diploma. Students who do not yet have a GED/HSD are referred to existing high school equivalency programs at the prisons and encouraged to apply to Goucher once they have earned their GED/HSD.

Students who have a GED/HSD but are not yet prepared for rigorous college course work may participate in college preparatory courses led by GPEP.

Number of Students: Approximately 50

Degrees Offered: Students currently earn college credit. We are working toward students being able to earn a degree from Goucher.

Funding: We are incredibly grateful to the foundations and individual donors that support GPEP. For more information, please visit www.goucher.edu/GPEP

Contacts: Amy Roza, Director, Goucher Prison Education Partnership at 410-337-6033 or amy.roza@goucher.edu

Program Website: www.goucher.edu/GPEP

Program Description: The Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP), a division of Goucher College, gives men and women incarcerated in Maryland the opportunity to pursue an excellent college education.

We offer Goucher College courses to students at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCIW) and the Maryland Correctional Institution – Jessup (MCIJ). We also provide college preparatory courses for students for needing additional skill development to be ready for college coursework.

About 50 students are enrolled with Goucher College via the Goucher Prison Education Partnership. In courses at the two prisons, students are held to the rigorous academic standards for which Goucher is known. Courses are taught on site by Goucher College faculty as well as by outstanding professors from nearby colleges and universities.

A Goucher College liberal arts education prepares students within a broad, humane perspective for a life of inquiry, creativity, and critical and analytical thinking. GPEP shares this resource with incarcerated students, many of whom have been denied access to a quality education throughout their lives. This outstanding college education empowers all Goucher students as scholars, leaders, and providers.

The entire Goucher academic community is enhanced and strengthened by the inclusion of these talented, dedicated students at the two prisons. Our work together stimulates awareness and meaningful dialogue in and beyond the Goucher community about justice, incarceration, and educational access.

The Goucher Prison Education Partnership builds on Goucher’s 128-year tradition as a leader in liberal arts education and practices the college’s community principles of respect, inclusion, communication, service, social justice, and personal responsibility.