What began seven years ago as an initiative to eliminate barriers to education and serve the community, Merrimack College’s Jail Education Project (JEP) has evolved into a credential-bearing program that has served more than 350 students and in July will award its first associate degree to an incarcerated student.
Aligned with Merrimack College’s Augustinian Mission, JEP operates in three jails and three pre-release units across Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk counties and offers more than 20 courses annually to incarcerated men and women. Since 2017, JEP has served over 350 students and conferred 40 certificates in general studies.
It has also expanded its scope to offer continued support to students upon release, leading to nine formerly incarcerated students transitioning to Merrimack’s Bachelor’s Degree Completion Program.
“It’s incredibly fulfilling to reach the point where we have students getting out of jail and enrolling full-time,” said Brittnie Aiello, professor in the Honors Program, who started JEP. “We have several students who are doing fantastic in the Bachelor’s Degree Completion Program.”
Aiello started the JEP program thanks in part to a faculty development grant. She began with one class, Intro to Sociology, at the Essex County Correctional Center.
“My dissertation was an ethnography and interview study in a women’s unit in a county jail,” Aiello explained. “I had spent a fair amount of time with incarcerated people and I realized the potential there. There’s a lot of smart people there that just don’t have opportunities.”
Emma Duffy-Comparone, associate professor of English, joined JEP in 2019. She now teaches creative writing across the range of facilities that JEP serves.
“It’s really fulfilling for me and, I hope, for the students,” Duffy-Comparone said. “It’s a great way to tap into your voice, find your power, and make connections with others. It can offer catharsis for students who have a lot to say.”
Merrimack students are involved in the program in a number of ways including working as teaching assistants. Hannah Delaney M’24, who recently earned her master’s in communications at Merrimack, worked as a teacher’s assistant in some of Duffy-Comparone’s classes.
“A lot of assignments they were doing were memoir- or poetry-based,” she explained. “You really get to see a lot of what their life outside of the jail is like and get a better understanding of where they came from. Seeing the whole person really opened my eyes just to how anyone can fall into these circumstances. As a society, we need to put things in place to help these people.”
Abigail Sarraf M’24 said serving as a JEP TA enhanced her education while enrolled in Merrimack’s master’s of criminal justice program. She assisted in public health and criminology classes in Lawrence and Billerica.
“(The students told me) that being in the classroom is an escape for them,” she recalled. “We treat them as humans. It’s nice to see some of the people who had no desire to be in school actually change their point of view and want to continue to learn.”
The credentials JEP awards include a three-course Certificate in General Studies and an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts. Courses taught have ranged from creative writing to public speaking to math to marketing to public health.
