Crito moves towards accreditation

Graduates of Washington University’s Prison Education Project speak with its director, Robert K. Henke copyright 2019 Robert Cohen

When the Crito Project started in 2013 it was inspired by the achievements of the Bard College Prison Initiative, and their ideals and practice remain a lodestone for us today. In particular, we hold accreditation to be of paramount importance to higher education in prison, as well as aiming towards symmetry between higher education delivery on campus and in prison. Such symmetry has the power to revolutionise prison teaching, students’ self-worth and learning experience and their life opportunities upon release.

So today is an important day not just for our students’ prospects but for the identity of the charity as a whole, because we took a large step towards delivering accredited higher education. A process that started in 2013, moved forwards in 2017 with recognition from the partnership office, now reaches an important milestone with the laying out of the pathway to realise this goal.

It will involves stringent internal auditing from the UEA and the redesign of a large part of our syllabus. We plan for our curriculum to incorporate not only accredited modules but prepatory ones that provide both the means to prepare for higher education and a mechanism by which to judge whether our students are ready to make the step up to university-level learning.

Lots of people have helped us get to this stage, but thanks must go first and foremost to Professor Lee Marsden, Head of School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies, and our own Doctor Tom Greaves, Head of the Philosophy Department.