We offer new digital content every day to teach and inspire people in Prisons, Jails, and other organizations that serve vulnerable populations.
Connect with us to learn more about our programs that teach and inspire. Incarcerated people respond well to our programs because they find hope in the message. Every member of the Prison Professors team served a jail or prison term. By using our time inside wisely, we emerged successfully, as law-abiding, contributing citizens.
Through our video, audio, and text-based courses, we show participants how the decisions a person makes while in custody can influence prospects for success upon release.
Brief profile of our work on PBS NewsHour / NBC
Improve Risk-Assessment Scores
We create new content every day. Our digital content helps administrators teach people in jails and prisons.
Participants in our digital courses develop stronger critical-thinking skills and better communication skills. Contact our team for a free demonstration that will show how Prison Professors can become a resource for administrators in prisons and jails. We guarantee that more participants in your institution will:
- Participate in your educational and vocational programming
- Avoid behavior that leads to disciplinary problems
- Develop a series of credentials that lead to productive lives
- Restore confidence and a sense of purpose in their lives
- Improve mental health and help people feel productive
- Develop values-based, goal-oriented adjustments that translate into success upon release
Initial commercial, filmed in halfway house, after 26 years in prison
On August 12, 2013, I completed 26 years of continuous confinement. I served my term in prisons of every security level. Yet as shown by the original publication date of the video above, which is easily verifiable by watching the clip on YouTube, I published this video on May 13, 2013.
How did I create the video a full three months before I finished serving my sentence?
The answer is self-evident. I began participating in re-entry programs at the start of my long journey through jails and prisons. While confined inside of the Pierce County Jail, a correctional officer inspired me to change the way that I think. By giving me an inspiring story to read, that officer helped me to change my life.
Participants in our Straight-A Guide Introductory course will learn the importance of beginning to prepare for success early so that they can emerge from confinement successfully. Our lessons both teach and inspire people. They show what a person can accomplish through values-based, goal-oriented adjustment patterns.
Titans of CNC Academy
Content to Inspire
People in jail and prisons respond well to our programs. By watching regular content that profiles best-possible outcomes for people that served time in prison, they restore hope. They begin to see a connection between the choices they make while serving time, and opportunities that they can open.
For example, listen to Ken Oliver reveal how he positioned himself to emerge successfully while he served a life sentence in the California Department of Corrections:
Ken Oliver Tells us How Decisions While Serving Life Sentence led to Liberty
Participants learn because they see a positive message from people that trained themselves to reject the criminal lifestyle while serving lengthy sentences in high-security penitentiaries, medium-security prisons, low-security prisons, and minimum-security camps.
These are on-demand reentry programs. Participants can learn from the courses anywhere they have access to person tablet-like devices, on institutional television channels, or through the MP-3 music players with audio formats. Provide the people in your institution with a positive message you will see the culture change in your institution.
Vogan McAbee’s story of serving a 30-year term in federal prison and staying positive
People in jail and prison connect to find hope and inspiration with our programs. Listen to the testimonials and you’ll hear how Prison Professors programs motivate people to leave disruptive behavior behind. They begin participating more actively and engaging in both educational and vocational programs.
Our programs are used in every prison in leading systems that make a commitment to helping people in prison prepare for success.
- Under the leadership of Dr. Brant Choate, The California Department of Corrections makes our programming available in every state prison. Under the
- Under the leadership of Andre Matevouisan, the Federal Bureau of Prisons uses our program at the federal prisons in Atwater, Florence, and Victorville.
- Under the leadership of Bernie Warner, the Washington State Prison System uses our programming.
- Under the leadership of Dorian Johnson, the Mecklenburg County Jail in Charlotte uses our programming.
- Under the leadership of Michael Tausek, the New York City Department of Corrections uses our programming.
- Under the leadership of Alicia Limtiaco, the Department of Justice uses our program in Guam and Saipain.
JereMy Rankins, formerly incarcerated person that became mental-health professional
We feature people from every background on our program. Anyone in jail or prison that has access to our program will learn what is possible. They will see that if they use their time wisely in prison, they can prepare for lives of meaning, relevance and dignity.
In the video below, you can watch YouTube sensation, Jessica Kent, who tells the story of how she used her time in prison to overcome substance abuse challenges, and then launch a YouTube channel that become a media enterprise.
Jessica Kent of the YouTube channel
We help people understand how to build and maintain strong family and community ties. For example, we feature the amazing story of Adam and Ro Clausen, showing how a husband and wife team worked together to prepare for success while Adam served a 213-year sentence at USP Allenwood and FCI McKean. Their positive adjustment led to Adam’s release from prison.
Adam and Ro Clausen After Adam’s Release from 213-Year Sentence
Sample Ten-Module Course
Module 1: Defining Success
This initial module helps participants grasp the importance of looking behind their current station in life so they can see what is possible to achieve. The course helps people understand the importance of introspection, assessing how past decisions led to current challenges.
- The takeaway would be for participants to identify success in their lives.
Module 2: Identifying Goals
This module works on the concept of setting SMART goals. Participants learn the importance of getting very specific with goals. Regardless of where they are, or what they’re enduring, a participant can rely upon goals to build discipline and motivation.
- The takeaway would be for participants to articulate goals that relate to their values defined in module one.
Module 3: Showing the Right Attitude
Participants must show their commitment to succeed, as they’ve defined success with their values and goals. To the extent that they can work toward a 100% commitment, they show that they have the right attitude.
- The takeaway would be for students to show that they’re making a high-level commitment to succeed.
Module 4: Articulating Aspirations
Participants will learn how to express what they’re working toward. This module helps them visualize what they’re striving to achieve. It helps them keep focus as they work through challenges and struggles of confinement.
- The takeaway would be for students to articulate the reason or purpose for the decisions they’re making today.
Module 5: Taking Action
With this module, participants learn the power of urgency. When they procrastinate, they miss opportunities. If they want to succeed, they must take advantage of all resources, including time. Every decision comes with an opportunity cost, so they must decide wisely.
- Takeaway will be for students to understand to place a higher value on using time efficiently.
Module 6: Accountability Metrics
Despite being incarcerated, people should still learn to hold themselves accountable. This module will teach the power of journaling and creating accountability metrics. They will learn why such tactics lead to better outcomes.
- The takeaway will be for participants to show the accountability metrics they’ve created.
Module 7: Being Aware
This module will show participants how to spot opportunities around them. Further, the module will teach participants how to make others aware of their efforts to prepare for success.
- Takeaway will be for participants to appreciate the importance of keeping their responsibility for success top-of-mind.
Module 8: Being Authentic
This module teaches participants how to keep their thoughts, their words, and their actions in harmony. To overcome the stigma of confinement, a person must show the pathway to resilience. This module shows them how.
- The takeaway will be for students to build
Module 9: Celebrating Achievements
This module helps participants learn how to feel joy in the incremental steps necessary on the journey to success. We teach the power of little steps, helping ‑‑them understand that with each micro achievement, we put ourselves on the pathway to higher levels of success.
- Takeaway will be for students to derive a sense of accomplishment with each small accomplishment that advances their prospects for success.
Module 10: Showing Appreciation
This module teaches participants that we advance the cycle of success when we show our gratitude for the blessings that come our way–and we can even find blessings in a jail cell if we make values-based, goal-oriented decisions.
- Takeaway will be for participants to recognize their role in building stronger communities.
Living, Breathing Evidence Showing Best Reentry Programs
How to Use this Course
The Prison Professors Introductory Curriculum offers digital learning courses. Staff members in jails or prisons may use the Prison Professors courses as teaching resources.
We’ve designed all curriculum to both teach and inspire inside a correctional setting.
Prison Professors courses help people prepare for success while serving sanctions in jails or prisons. Our team creates a daily dosage of digital files that include:
- Audio podcasts in MP-3 audio format
- Video files in MP-4 video format
- Written files in PDF format
To protect institutional security, we deliver our courses through:
- External hard drives
- Cloud-based links
- Live stream, interactive links through the Zoom platform
STRUCTURE
We create these programs in 10-hour learning cycles. Some of those execution cycles are stand-alone modules, others are part of ongoing sequential programs.
We also offer an interactive option where members of our team participate in live stream through Zoom connections. Participants may work through the program at their own pace.
We’ve designed the modules to work through 2-hour, interactive sessions, with or without a facilitator.
INSTITUTIONAL NEEDS AND OPTIONAL EQUIPMENT
- Video Monitor: The institution should offer a video monitor that people can access either individual in groups.
- Audio Capabilities: The institution should offer an audio system that will allow participants to hear the content.
- PDF Print Capabilities: Although not necessary, staff members may want to print the accompanying PDF documents for distribution. An alternative would be for students to write responses to either multiple-choice or open-ended questions on blank pieces of paper.
- Softcover Books: We offer a series of paperback books that institutions may purchase as supplement all of our programs.
- Certificates of Completion: Staff may print certificates of completion for students that score higher than 60% on the exit exam.
- Interactive Lessons: Staff may choose to offer interactive Zoom sessions where our team at Prison Professors interacts with students in jails or prisons.
INCLUSIONS
Each module begins with a five-question, self-directed, entrance questionnaire that facilitators may require participants to complete.
Each lesson includes a written lesson to describe the content that we include. Each 10-hour course will include a combination of audio files, video files, reading materials. Administrators have discretion on what resources to distribute, depending upon institutional capabilities.
Participants may complete the program independently, or with a group facilitator.
We will also include critical-thinking exercises that participants may complete with a combination of multiple-choice and open-ended questions.
Each module will conclude with a comprehensive exit exam to assess preparations for release in accordance with lessons learned in the module.
Facilitators may rely upon an answer key to easily grade the exit exam.
The exit exam will provide an assessment on whether the participant mastered the material, reflecting whether the person is:
- Unprepared for Success Upon Release (less than 60%)
- Prepared: Promising Path to Succeed Upon Release (60 to 80%)
- Excellence: Ready to Succeed upon Release (80 to 100%)
We base our scoring system on what we’ve learned from working with employers that participate in the Prison Professors program of opening job opportunities for formerly incarcerated people.
STEPS TO LEARNING SUCCESS
Step 1: Take the entrance exam.
Step 2: Complete the lesson plans as assigned by your instructor.
Step 3: Work through the lessons content.
Step 4: Use blank pieces of paper to complete the exit exam.
Step 5: Submit the exit exam to your facilitator for grading.
Step 6: Earn 70% or above to successfully complete this course and receive a certificate to show the level of release preparation.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Is Internet Required?
Not necessary.
We provide our content in a manner that suits the institution.
For institutions that want to access online, we have an online version. For institutions that want to receive the content on a hard drive, we will accommodate.
For institutions that want to receive the content on a DVD, we will provide.
What are the Key Takeaways
Our courses help participants develop strong critical thinking skills. Participants learn how the decisions they’re making today influence prospects for success in days, weeks, months, years, and decades ahead.
Is a Teacher or Facilitator Necessary?
Not necessary, but staff or inmates can facilitate group participation.
We’ve created these courses to be self-directed. But either staff leaders or inmate facilitators can use these courses to lead group courses.
How to These Courses Benefit our Institution?
Courses that Prison Professors offers contribute to institutional safety and security. They do not require outside facilitators. As a result, there is no possibility for the introduction of contraband. Course participants learn how to make the highest and best use of resources available. They see reasons to avoid disruptive behavior with daily content that we provide.
140 Years in Prison
Motivated in Prison
Person wrote
Letters from Prison
Here you can add small description about your company history or achievements.
Serving time in Military Prison
