Princeton donates laptops to two New Jersey correctional facilities to support higher education and digital literacy

The University has expanded its commitment to higher education for incarcerated individuals with a donation of 52 laptop computers to the New Jersey Department of Corrections, announced Jan. 29 in an event at Palmer House.

The laptops and related equipment like headsets and printers will be used in two state prisons as part of the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons (NJ-STEP). The Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI) is a key member of NJ-STEP.

In her remarks, NJDOC Commissioner Victoria L. Kuhn Education said, "Education is a critical component of our corrections community.”

Each laptop and its peripheral equipment will travel together on a cart configured as a “mobile computer lab,” NJ-STEP and PTI said. “These labs, which will be used by incarcerated undergraduates across New Jersey, represent a vital step in preparing our students for the 21st-century job markets and campuses that they will return to,” said PTI Director Jill Stockwell in opening remarks at the event announcing the donation.

“It's mornings like these that really help recharge the batteries and remind us of why we do the work that we do,” said NJDOC Commissioner Victoria L. Kuhn. “Education is a critical component of our corrections community.”

“Computer literacy is critical to the education of people in the 21st century,” said Princeton Provost Jen Rexford, a decorated computer scientist, noting that the mobile computer labs “will enable the incarcerated students to learn really valuable skills to enable them to take the next step in their education and work and enable their families and their communities to thrive.”

Rexford said the financial resources for the donation came from an anonymous member of Princeton’s alumni community.

The donation will help approximately 300 incarcerated undergraduate students at the East Jersey State Prison and the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women build knowledge and digital literacy skills for the transition to college and the workforce after release from prison. The laptop carts can be wheeled from classroom to classroom, allowing instructors to integrate technology into their lesson plans.

“We can't wait for our incarcerated students to get to work on these computers,” said Stockwell. “They'll be researching their senior theses, they'll be learning [computer] programs, they'll be practicing their language skills and they'll be revising and writing essays. And in all of this, they'll be gaining the skill set that they will need to head in the direction of their dreams.”

Jill Stockwell, director of Princeton's Prison Teaching Initiative, said the computers will help incarcerated undergraduates build knowledge and digital literacy skils for the transition to college and the workforce.

State and college initiatives

NJ-STEP is a consortium of higher education institutions in New Jersey that works in partnership with the State of New Jersey Department of Corrections and New Jersey State Parole Board. Through NJ-STEP, incarcerated students can earn credits toward an associate’s degree in liberal arts at Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) or a bachelor’s degree in justice studies from Rutgers University.

Chris Agans, executive director of NJ-STEP, said 500 men and women are enrolled in the program at any given time across five facilities, offering 150 to 160 classes per year. “We've served over 3,000 students, many of whom are now home thriving, entering the workforce, reunited with their families, even leading in times of social change.

Christopher Etienne, an NJ-STEP alumnus, is the student engagement coordinator of Prison Teaching Initiative.

“NJ-STEP students and alumni continue to embrace their academic journey,” he said. “They produce scholarly works. They enter the labor market. They solve for social problems and produce in our economy across all sectors of industry, including government and social services, private industry and entrepreneurial endeavors. This is only possible because our consortium continues to work together in this really unique public and private partnership.”

Gen Van Doren, director of the RISE program (Returning and Incarcerated Student Education) at RVCC, said the computer labs will particularly benefit three subject areas: science lab courses, language classes and computer science classes, which are a requirement of the program.

“This donation, to me, serves as a reminder of what can happen when we have committed partners who are willing to work together in the best interest of our students,” she said.

PTI is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It was cofounded in 2005 by Gillian Knapp, a Princeton professor of astrophysical sciences (now emeritus), and Jenny Greene and Mark Krumholz, who were postdoctoral fellows in astrophysics at the time. Greene, now a professor of astrophysical sciences and director of PTI, received a presidential mentoring award on Jan. 13 for her work with PTI.

Each semester, roughly 60 volunteers drawn from Princeton graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, staff and community members team-teach college courses for credit in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, and physical sciences including laboratory courses in up to six NJDOC institutions. An additional 40 volunteers provide tutoring support in three of the six facilities. The initiative is part of the University’s Program for Community College Engagement (PCCE) in the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning.

Stockwell told the audience that the donation of computer labs had been in the planning stages for 18 months, spearheaded by Princeton's Office of the Provost. She thanked Rexford and Vice Provost Cole Crittenden for their “stalwart support” of the Prison Teaching Initiative and for helping to usher the mobile computer labs donation into reality. She also thanked Sarah Schwarz, the director of PCCE, and Kate Stanton, the director of the McGraw Center, for their ongoing support of PTI.

‘The more you know, the more you grow’

“Currently only 6% of incarcerated students have access to secondary opportunities,” said Christopher Etienne, an NJ-STEP alumnus who joined PTI as student engagement coordinator in 2021. “That's 6% out of a population of 2.5 million incarcerated individuals.”

Etienne introduced three recent NJ-STEP alumni, who shared stories of the positive impact that access to higher education and computer technology has had on their lives.

John Stys, who was formerly incarcerated, is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree at Rutgers in information technology, and began working on his degree 11 years ago at South Woods State Prison. Without access to laptops, he has had to write all his papers by hand, often writing the equivalent of three papers for each paper he hands in, including a rough draft, another draft that may incorporate comments from his instructor, and then the final draft.

He said the NJ-STEP program “has been a second chance for me. I now have a 3.7 GPA,” which was met with applause from the audience. “We're a digital society, a digital community,” he said. “Having the computer literacy for that is going to strengthen the bonds in this digital community, [and] help reduce recidivism.”

Christopher Agans (left), executive director of NJ-STEP, shares a lighthearted moment with Samuel Quiles, an NJ-STEP graduate who is now in the workforce.

Ali Muslim, who was incarcerated from 1985 to 2021 and earned his associate’s degree in psychology, magna cum laude, through NJ-STEP, entered the bachelor’s program at Rutgers directly after his release and graduated last May.

He held two summer internships at Princeton through a PTI internship program — both of which involved digital literacy training — and currently serves as the PTI program assistant for internships.

He told the audience he has just been accepted into a Rutgers master’s program in social work — eliciting enthusiastic applause. “What education means to me is very important,” he said. “It's a representation of who you are. The more you know, the more you grow.”

Samuel Quiles earned his associate’s degree and then his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Rutgers, graduating summa cum laude. Today, he is a case manager for a return-to-work program for previously incarcerated individuals and a mentor for a Returning Citizens Support Group. He called NJ-STEP and PTI “my community. Those are my family members, those who gave me that second chance to be the me that I am.”

Liz Fuller-Wright contributed to this story.

The University's donation of mobile computer labs will be used in two state prisons by approximately 300 incarcerated undergraduate students.