For Review

The JSTOR Access in Prison team is proud to announce our 2026 Fair Opportunity Month Open Call for Submissions. Each year, we dedicate April to uplifting the voices, experiences, and creativity of people who have lived, learned, and persevered inside carceral settings. This is our fourth year running this project, and every cycle reminds us…

The JSTOR Access in Prison theme for April 2024 is “Second Chance Mentality” First Chance Reality.” The title was the result of sessions with learners who were sentenced as juveniles and spent decades in prison.

These are not exclusive private institutions that are rejecting these applicants; ironically, they have a better shot at these private universities. The ones rejecting these applicants are part of the public university system funded by the taxpayer.

This endeavor has brought me a renewed sense of purpose and hope…

The knowledge I gained in history, philosophy, and sociology proved how little I new about the world.

But I’m not asking you to let me come crash on your couch. All I’m asking for is a decent shake at life when I get out of this steel cage: a second chance—not a handout, an opportunity. Let me prove myself.

Prisoners return to society with skewed ethics because prisons are not concerned with helping them structure their lives for reintegration back into the community. This is because prisons are more about detaining and public safety than rehabilitation.

I dream of the day when I walk out of here, not as an old criminal, but as a man who has been given a second chance to make things right.

Billy Bragg illustrates the frustrations of post-release job seeking.

I had to scream into the phone in the hopes that she could hear me tell her that I loved her and that I was going to make her proud.

while every larger rock and boulder sat hinged like the gaping halves of gigantic clams

Second Chances are more than a privilege provided, it is the duty to make a difference when we can

But with the lack of access to programming, I realized that many women felt discouraged from thinking about education. From the long waiting lists to enroll…

I began referring to myself as a college student although I was still incarcerated. the prison no longer seemed to be a prison anymore. In my eyes I saw a college campus.

Once the prison term is served the debt to society is paid. In the USA, we have shortages in various careers. Let us return to work.

the true power of education is not only to enable your dreams, it extends through you to help others actualize theirs, for the pictures a lot bigger than 30 or 60 years of any life.

Books incite dreams and dreams are dangerous, slipping easily between the bars

Creative works about education in prison for Second Chance Month written by people with lived experience.