Darnell Burtin

Since 2008, the Petey Greene Program (PGP) has recruited volunteers—primarily college students—to support the academic goals of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. In that time, we’ve learned how to tutor incarcerated people well. We’ve learned that being an expert in geometry or sentence structure is important, but not nearly as vital as our tutors showing up—in-person, inside prison walls—week after week, working through lessons together with students. Everyone who has succeeded academically has enjoyed this type of personal support at some point in their life; this is PGP’s central value proposition. We’ve also learned that our volunteers are inspired by making a difference in someone’s life to make a difference in the world. They want to do something about a system that funnels people, especially Black people, from failed schooling to prison. PGP has increasingly met this demand with trainings, workshops, and events that educate volunteers on how to be effective tutors in carceral settings, while connecting volunteers with the broader movement for change. While PGP recognizes that improving educational access for incarcerated people is but one element of reform required to promote a more just society, it is nonetheless essential. There are those who emphasize frontend measures like improving public education, job creation, and more equitable community investment; still others who advocate abolishing carceral systems altogether. These are critical and essential battles—but what of the millions of justice-involved people our society has already failed, who are incarcerated or have been incarcerated, and are not prepared for higher education or living wage work? PGP believes that everyone deserves a chance, that we cannot discount anyone, and are responsible for each other—it is the central life-long lesson our volunteers learn when they tutor students who are incarcerated, or have been recently released.