By Kasey Noss
Student Life, Washington University in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS — Washington University’s Prison Education Project (PEP) has been awarded a $980,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation after its proposal for improving prison education was selected as the winner of the foundation’s “Future of Higher Learning in Prison” initiative.
The two-year grant will be critical to the PEP’s goal of improving and expanding its operations. The funds will be allocated primarily toward expanding the PEP to a women’s prison in central Missouri, upgrading educational technology and advancing its post-incarceration reentry program.
The PEP, founded in 2014, provides a liberal arts education to people incarcerated at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center (MECC), a medium-security men’s prison located about 30 miles from St. Louis in Pacific, Missouri. In addition to the 16 courses currently offered by the program, the PEP offers two degrees: an Associate in Arts (Liberal Arts) and a Bachelor of Science in Integrated Studies.