In just over a year, the JSTOR Access in Prison program has doubled its reach in US state and federal prison facilities. 

In late 2023, JAIP celebrated reaching 1,000 prisons and providing access to more than 500,000 incarcerated learners. Today, more than one million incarcerated learners can now research, download, and read academic journal articles, books, and other scholarly materials via the JSTOR platform.

The program cleared this astonishing milestone in December 2024 thanks in part to two key agreements. The first, with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, makes JSTOR available inside two federal facilities, reaching thousands of people in federal custody. The JAIP team hopes to expand that to all 200,000 people in the federal prison system by the end of 2025.

The second agreement is an expansion of a 2022 arrangement with the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR). Originally, the ADCRR agreement made JSTOR available to the approximately 3,000 people enrolled in higher education in prison programs in Arizona. The program was so successful that ADCRR decided to expand access to all of the nearly 40,000 people in custody in the ADCRR system, regardless of whether they are enrolled in educational programming. 

Stacy Burnett, senior manager for JSTOR Access in Prison, says the new agreements show that departments of corrections see the pro-social value of the program.

“People in prisons use JSTOR the same way as people on the outside,” Burnett said. Many use JSTOR to pursue structured educational goals such as degrees and certificates, others for more self-directed learning. 

Users have credited access to JSTOR with helping them find community, with saving them and their families money on phone calls and other research expenses, with understanding and reframing their circumstances and actions. Others have used information they found on JSTOR to draft and propose legislation to support reentry from prison that is being considered in the North Carolina legislature. 

One user told the JAIP team that research on JSTOR led directly to asking for a health screening that saved their life. 

These are just a few of the stories showing the value of access to academic materials in prisons and jails. For many users, JSTOR Access in Prison provides their first opportunity to learn and apply academic research and analysis skills. Since most people who are incarcerated will eventually be released, these skills provide an important bridge. “It’s a valuable reentry tool for civic engagement. It gets people to think more deeply,” Burnett said.

The JSTOR Access in Prison program has expanded dramatically since 2019, supported by grants from the Mellon Foundation and the Ascendium Education Group. More than 95% of US state and federal prison facilities now provide access to JSTOR, and the program is now active in 24 countries. Building on the success of 2024, JSTOR Access in Prison has secured $800,000 in new funding commitments from Ascendium and Mellon to support expansion into US jails, which are generally managed at a local rather than state or federal level. 

Burnett notes that while one million is a remarkable number, it represents just half of people incarcerated in the US and only 10% of people incarcerated worldwide.

ITHAKA hopes to make JSTOR available to all of them.