Our Beginning

The Freedom to Learn Campaign IL (FTL) formed in March 2019 in response to Danville Correctional Center’s staff removing over 200 titles from the Education Justice Project’s (EJP) library at the prison. Many of the books that were removed focused on race and identity—such as and W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk and the autobiography of Frederick Douglass.  The book removal was a part of the Department of Correction’s growing practice of restricting access to reading materials in prison.

The actions of prison officials at Danville are merely a symptom of a system that fails to support the bettering of human life by expanding the minds and life outcomes of incarcerated individuals, their families, and practitioners. Educators across the state have encountered and continue to encounter censorship challenges and overall systematic blockades to providing free high-quality higher education to incarcerated individuals.

Although the books have been returned, FTL remains an active campaign with specific outcomes that support free, quality, and equitable college-in-prison programs.

Our Work

Freedom to Pursue Higher Education While in Prison

Practices for higher education in prison vary across Illinois’ prisons. Policies should be put in place to expand access to college programs. All academically eligible students should able to enroll in college, with no bars based upon criteria such as length of sentences, age, or criminal charges.

 Freedom to Study Without Interference

Transfers between facilities are common within Illinois, disrupting the academic progress of many people. Other states have a “transfer hold” for those in education programs so they cannot be sent to another prison unless there is a clear and pressing need. This should also be policy in Illinois. 

Freedom from Censorship

Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass are just two of the dozens of titles that have recently been banned from prison classrooms by the IDOC. Book approval policies should be transparent and fair, with clear procedures. There should be an independent appeals process.

Freedom to Continue Education Upon Release

Many incarcerated students wish to continue their education upon release. Illinois needs policies that support diploma and degree completion, such as: requiring state colleges and universities to designate staff who will be trained to support and respond to the special needs of individuals with criminal records; and allowing formerly incarcerated students to maintain professional contact with the programs they studied with while in prison for assistance with references, letters of recommendation, etc.