Prison Education Programs
PJI’s programs offer a Georgetown education to incarcerated students, turning carceral spaces into college classrooms. Through transformational liberal arts courses, incarcerated scholars expand their thinking, engage with their peers, challenge themselves academically, and build their self-confidence. Our prison education programs are taught in person by distinguished Georgetown faculty and welcome students of all genders into the classroom.
Access to higher education has long-lasting positive impact on people in prison, and earning a degree or college credits helps students prepare for their futures after release. Georgetown’s prison education programs, offered through the Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences, reach students in D.C. and Maryland.
“Education has changed the trajectory of my life … It has given me purpose as a human being.”
Halim Flowers, artist and former Prison Scholar
Prison Scholars Program
The Prison Scholars Program at the D.C. Jail offers credit-bearing and non-credit classes year round, as well as a weekly lecture series with distinguished guest speakers. The program has reached over 374 students since its start in 2018. 61 Georgetown educators have taught courses for the program, and students have earned a combined 1,985 credits towards their college degrees.
Bachelor of Liberal Arts Program
The Bachelor of Liberal Arts program is an expansion of the Prison Scholars Program that offers a full bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University for incarcerated students in Maryland. The program launched in 2022 at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup, Maryland and is expected to enroll 125 students within five years. Graduates of the program will earn a Bachelor of Liberal Arts, granted by the Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences.
The bachelor’s degree curriculum is modeled after Georgetown’s on-campus undergraduate programs and brings the university’s academic caliber and rich history of liberal arts in the Jesuit tradition to incarcerated students. Learn more
Prison Education News
News
Prison Scholars Celebrate Summer Semester Achievements
The Prison Scholars Program celebrated the completion of the summer semester at the D.C. Jail! Following a semester of rigorous coursework, the Prisons and Justice Initiative community came…
September 10, 2026
News
The Small, Often Invisible Moments That Matter
Caleb Johnston connected with Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative (PJI) through a practicum requirement in the Master of Arts in American Government program at the Graduate School of Arts…
July 30, 2026
News
How London Teeter Turned Her Own Experience Into Advocacy
Attentive in the classroom, eager to learn and help her classmates, and an active participant in discussions, one would never imagine the many obstacles London Teeter overcame just to be a…
June 16, 2026