We are a group of UW students devoted to creating and improving post-secondary education programs inside of prisons and making these rare opportunities more accessible to prisoners. Our organization supports the education of prisoners as a measure that is underutilized in our country’s hyper-punitive incarceration system, which remains focused on retribution and deterrence rather than rehabilitation. We advocate for education behind bars as a humane and effective opportunity for prisoners who will be leaving prison with social, legal, and economic handicaps to successfully reintegrate back into society after incarceration. We hope that increased prison education will be one of the first steps toward making a more humane and rehabilitative criminal justice system a reality in our country.
In the two years since H.O.P.E. was founded, our organization has increased opportunities and awareness for prisoners in various ways through a range of projects and fundraisers. Over the past few years we have completed multiple projects to support our mission. One such project was our book drive in which H.O.P.E. collected over 1,000 textbooks from the UW campus that were donated to Monroe Correctional Complex to create a new resource library and to supplement the Washington Corrections Center for Women’s existing library. Another was the Bridges to H.O.P.E. Scholarship. This is a $2000 scholarship for local college students who were in foster care and have been affected by the incarceration system. The money was jointly raised by prisoners at Monroe and by H.O.P.E. through various fundraisers. Beyond this, we facilitate several advocacy events every year to spread our goal of increasing knowledge about the power of prison education to the surrounding community.
As well as continuing many of these projects, this year we hope to take even further action. Projects in the works include facilitating a lecture series at the prison, funding college coursework for inmates within the Bridges program, and continuing advocacy through an upcoming art exhibit that will be shown throughout the quarter in the School of Social Work.
In the two years since H.O.P.E. was founded, our organization has increased opportunities and awareness for prisoners in various ways through a range of projects and fundraisers. Over the past few years we have completed multiple projects to support our mission. One such project was our book drive in which H.O.P.E. collected over 1,000 textbooks from the UW campus that were donated to Monroe Correctional Complex to create a new resource library and to supplement the Washington Corrections Center for Women’s existing library. Another was the Bridges to H.O.P.E. Scholarship. This is a $2000 scholarship for local college students who were in foster care and have been affected by the incarceration system. The money was jointly raised by prisoners at Monroe and by H.O.P.E. through various fundraisers. Beyond this, we facilitate several advocacy events every year to spread our goal of increasing knowledge about the power of prison education to the surrounding community.
As well as continuing many of these projects, this year we hope to take even further action. Projects in the works include facilitating a lecture series at the prison, funding college coursework for inmates within the Bridges program, and continuing advocacy through an upcoming art exhibit that will be shown throughout the quarter in the School of Social Work.