Colette Correa-Bruzzese ‘27

WUJUR (2025)

Abstract

Washington University’s Prison Education Program (PEP), established in 2011, reflects a broader national movement to expand higher education access in prisons following rising incarceration rates and the elimination of Pell Grants for incarcerated individuals. As a private, elite research university located in St. Louis, Missouri, one of the most socioeconomically and racially divided cities in the country, WashU’s PEP introduces both opportunities and tensions for program participants. This tension affects how participants perceive their affiliation with WashU, leading to both increased confidence and skepticism about the University’s role in their education and post-release opportunities. This essay explores the impact of WashU’s Prison Education Program on inmates’ social capital, defined as the networks of people’s relationships which are productive towards advancing their goals, and compares this experience to research on PEPs in other universities. Like this study, past scholarship also measures changes in social capital to evaluate the effect of a PEP on participants’ lives because of social capital’s relevance to one’s opportunities and socioeconomic mobility, which are essential for inmates reentering society. Due to WashU’s status as a wealthy, private research university, affiliation with the University generally increases social capital. To facilitate this research, three faculty members of WashU’s Prison Education Project were interviewed and multiple graduates of the program were surveyed about their personal experiences and insights. The results of the study did not prove conclusive, partly due to small sample size and limited interaction with participants. However, two main trends were identified: an increase in social capital due to participating in WashU PEP, which aligns with past scholarship, and the identification of a pattern of complex relationships between participants of PEP and Washington University.

Main

This article is viewable by PDF download.

References

References for this work are viewable by PDF download.

Supplemental material

There is no supplemental material provided by the author(s) for this work.

About this article

Citation (APA)

Correa-Bruzzese, C. (2025). Unlocking potential: Social capital in Washington University’s prison education program. The Washington University Journal of Undergraduate Research, 1(1), 33–38. https://doi.org/10.7936/wujur.9265

Author Information

Correa-Bruzzese, Colette. Washington University in St. Louis.
Corresponding Author. Send correspondence to c.colette@wustl.edu.

Additional Information and Declarations

There is no additional information or declarations provided by the author(s).

Peer Review

WUJUR thanks the anonymous Peer Reviewers who contributed to the review of this work.

Rights and Permissions

Individual articles © 2025 by their respective authors. Illustrations and images remain the property of their respective authors or rights holders and are reproduced here with permission or under fair use.

The author(s) may grant certain license permissions to the public.

Copyright © 2025. Washington University Journal of Undergraduate Research. All rights reserved for compilation, design, and editorial content.