According to data published by the Illinois Department of Corrections earlier this month, access to college classes in prison is falling behind while demand for them increases.
Around 2,600 out of the approximately 30,000 people incarcerated in Illinois are enrolled in higher education, while another 3,700 are on a waitlist, according to IDOC. “That’s a pretty powerful indication that the challenge isn’t a lack of interest in education — it’s our capacity to meet that interest,” said Ashton Klekamp, policy and research director at the Education Justice Project, to OpenCampus and WBEZ Chicago.
Whether someone has access to higher education depends largely on geography, with some prisons offering limited access while a few offer none at all. “One of the things that jumps out immediately is how uneven access is across facilities,” Klekamp said. “It tells us that the experience of trying to access education can depend considerably on where someone is incarcerated.”
The state published data on who is studying in prison for only the second time, after a 2023 state law mandated IDOC release the stats. “For a long time … we didn’t have a sense of where that access existed and who didn’t have access,” Klekamp said. “The demographic data is something that is really important…People are telling us very clearly that they want an education. The question for Illinois is whether we’re willing to build the capacity to meet that demand.”
Currently, most bachelor’s degree programs in Illinois prisons come through private universities — Northwestern, Lewis, Adler, and Augustana all offer bachelor’s degrees. North Park Theological Seminary offers a master’s degree in restorative justice ministries.
The only four-year public institutions offering credit-bearing academic courses are the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which offers college credit but not a full degree, and Eastern Illinois University. Both operate at Danville Correctional Center.
Read more at WBEZ Chicago.
