Charlotte West, Open Campus’s education and prisons reporter, has teamed up with Lauren Frost and Alex Keefe from WBEZ Chicago’s Prisoncast! project to create a quarterly print newsletter for people incarcerated in Illinois. This collaboration builds on Open Campus’s network of higher education reporters working in partnership with 17 local newsrooms across the country.
Last November, Open Campus and WBEZ Chicago sent out 400+ copies of a special Illinois-focused print issue of College Inside to people in the state prison system. Based on an overwhelmingly positive response from incarcerated readers, the team will continue to send a print newsletter into Illinois prisons and jails every quarter, just before the statewide Prisoncast! show broadcasts on Illinois Public Radio stations.
“On Prisoncast!, our focus is making journalism with and for folks inside and their families, not just writing stories about them,” said Keefe, a WBEZ editor. “Open Campus shares that ethos, and our teamwork helps both of us better serve the community of people affected by incarceration with fact-based, verified news, and information.”
Download the PDF of Issue 2 of the College Inside x Prisoncast! newsletter here.
Issue 2 gives an update on West’s ongoing investigation with WBEZ into Illinois’ rocky implementation of a 2024 earned time law that allows incarcerated people to reduce the time they have to serve by participating in education and work. It features Carl Rogers, who was released in February more than a year after Open Campus and WBEZ first covered his story.
It also shares a story on a bill that would restore state financial aid for incarcerated students in Illinois by Lisa Kurian Philip, who covers higher education for Open Campus and WBEZ. Additional reporting includes Alex Keefe’s analysis of bills to reform the state’s “truth-in-sentencing” law, an interview with a recently freed man about how he fought his wrongful conviction, and reader perspectives on “rehabilitation.”
The newsletter, designed by Emily Jenkins, showcases cover art by incarcerated artist Juan Hernandez titled “Doing for Ourselves,” depicting how incarcerated people step in to fill gaps in prison programming.
The College Inside x Prisoncast! newsletter also provides information about the upcoming Prisoncast! broadcast airing March 30 at 2 pm central on Illinois Public Radio stations. It will feature a conversation between West and WBEZ host Erin Allen about the earned time law. Listeners can listen live online at wbez.org or tune in to local NPR stations.
About College Inside
College Inside is published by Open Campus and written and edited by Charlotte West, the only reporter in the country dedicated to covering prison education. Her expertise has shed new light on the most-pressing challenges facing incarcerated students and how issues like student debt, the return of Pell Grants for incarcerated students, and limited access to technology are shaping education and career paths during and after incarceration. Open Campus reporting on prison education is supported by Ascendium.
About Prisoncast!
Prisoncast! is an audio and journalism project organized by WBEZ in Chicago and Illinois Public Radio stations to serve people inside Illinois prisons and their loved ones outside. Everything on the show comes directly from an idea, question or request submitted from someone currently or formerly incarcerated, their loved ones or from groups that work with this community.