Stanford Jail & Prison Education Project (SJPEP)
The Stanford Jail & Prison Education Project (known as SJPEP, or formerly SPEP) is a graduate student group that provides much-needed education services to people who are incarcerated in Bay Area jails, as well as interdisciplinary teaching opportunities in a non-traditional environment for Stanford graduate students.
What is SJPEP?
The Stanford Jail & Prison Education Project (SJPEP or formerly, SPEP) is a graduate student group that provides much-needed educational programming to people who are incarcerated in local Bay Area jails, as well as interdisciplinary teaching opportunities in a non-traditional environment for Stanford graduate students.
What does volunteering with SJPEP look like?
SJPEP volunteers will undergo training and preparation throughout the winter quarter (beginning end of January) to co-teach an 8-week seminar course inside a local jail this Spring. Once selected, you will be matched with a multidisciplinary teaching team of Stanford grad students, with whom you will co-develop the syllabus. You will then develop your own lesson plan for 1-2 sessions on a topic related to the overarching course theme. Examples of previous course themes include Disasters, History and Repetition, Art and the Brain, and Great Innovations. During the Spring course, co-teachers will each take a turn leading the class in a given week while the others co-learn alongside incarcerated students. This co-learning model is the heart of SJPEP.
What is the time commitment?
Volunteers will complete five training sessions (1-2 hours each) throughout the Winter quarter, in addition to spending time co-developing the syllabus and developing 1-2 individual lesson plans. In the Spring, the course will meet for 90-120 minutes once a week for eight weeks; commuting to and from the jail will take an additional 1-2 hours. In addition to class sessions, you will meet regularly with your teaching team to prepare and debrief each class. There will also be opportunities to debrief and build community with other SJPEP volunteers on other teaching teams.
How do I learn more?
Check back for info sessions in fall quarter.
How do I apply?
Check back in fall for a link to the application.
Questions? Reach out to Jennifer Co (jco3@stanford.edu).
Contact Us: SJPEP Graduate Student Leadership Team
- Recruitment/Student Relations - Jennifer Co (jco3@stanford.edu)
- Orientation/SF County Jail Coordinator - Guglielmo Graziano Panelli(gpanelli@stanford.edu)
- Community Building and Pedagogy - Emily Paige Russell (eruss@stanford.edu)
- Accreditation and Outreach - Madeline Anderson (andersma@stanford.edu)
- Funding and Outreach - Clara Maria Bacmeister (clarabac@stanford.edu)
History
Maggie Filler, JD ’12, founded the SJPEP with the support of Debbie Mukamal at Stanford Law School’s Criminal Justice Center. In 2011, Filler led a group of eight Stanford graduate students to teach an interdisciplinary seminar course at San Quentin Prison with 16 incarcerated students. Each week, a different graduate Stanford volunteer would lead the class, teaching to a broad course theme from the perspective of their academic discipline. The remaining Stanford students would learn alongside the incarcerated students; this co-learning model remains at the heart of SJPEP.
In 2018, SJPEP moved its courses to local jails where there was a greater need for education services. We currently operate in two Bay Area jails: Maple Street Correctional Center (Redwood City) and San Francisco County Jail 3 (San Bruno). Over the last five years, we have engaged between 12 and 30 Stanford graduate students each year, collectively representing nearly 30 different departments and programs at Stanford. In total, our volunteers have taught 28 classes across two jails, reaching hundreds of incarcerated students.