The Georgia State University Prison Education Project (GSUPEP) is a programmatic initiative of Perimeter College that provides college education to incarcerated people in Georgia, assists formerly incarcerated people in reentering society, and educates our on-campus student population about incarceration and criminal justice.

Many of the staff members of GSUPEP have been teaching in prisons for years. We banded together in the spring of 2016 and proposed a project to our administration that summer. In the fall of 2016, GSUPEP began. We offered our first for-credit course at Phillips State Prison for men through a partnership with Common Good Atlanta in the spring of 2017.

Currently we work in the following facilities:

Phillips State Prison (for men)
Walker State Prison (for men)
Atlanta’s United States Penitentiary (for men)
Atlanta Transitional Center (for men)
Hancock State Prison (for men)
Lee Arrendale State Prison (for women)
Whitworth Women’s Facility (for women)
Department of Juvenile Justice
If you would like programming in your facility, please contact us.

Students in the for-credit prison classes must be incarcerated in state or federal prison in the State of Georgia, meet their warden’s requirements for educational participation, pass the Accuplacer exam and be admitted to the college. Wardens set different requirements for participation, but most require a length of time without disciplinary problems to participate. Students must have a GED or high school diploma and must meet most of the same requirements as college students in traditional settings. Most classes contain 15-20 students.

GSUPEP courses are staffed with Perimeter College professors. All instructors are required to be qualified to teach college courses, and all instructors teach in their areas of specialty. All instructors are paid employees of Perimeter College.

Teaching in a prison is an emotionally and physically taxing enterprise. To prepare our teachers, we require several levels of training. All professors must complete the necessary volunteer training for their facility (three to four hours per year) in which they learn the process of entering and leaving prisons, legal obligations and restrictions on them while in the prisons and what to do in cases of emergency. These training sessions are run through the Georgia Department of Corrections or the U.S. Department of Justice.  In addition, GSUPEP requires faculty to take a training session we lead at Perimeter College. This training focuses on issues of pedagogy, adapting classes for non-tech classrooms, accommodating special needs and power dynamics in a prison setting. In addition, we keep in close contact with our faculty during the semester to support them and help them manage any issues that arise.

Yes. Our students are admitted as degree-seeking students. Should they be released before they finish their degree, we encourage them to continue their education on one of our five campuses in the Atlanta area (Alpharetta, Clarkston, Decatur, Dunwoody or Newton) or through our Online Campus.

GSUPEP is funded through private donations and grants. While Perimeter College has the most affordable tuition in the state of Georgia, it still costs approximately $7,500 for a student to earn an associate degree from Perimeter College, even while attending full time. Almost all of our donations are spent on tuition, books and other fees associated with college education.

Donating to our program helps us to serve more students. Click to Give. GSUPEP also accepts book donations to help build libraries at the facilities. We especially welcome publisher donations of textbooks. Please contact us to set up a drop-off or pickup of books.

If you are interested in teaching, you must be available to be hired as an adjunct teacher by Perimeter College and must hold accredited degrees in the subject area you would like to teach. We give teaching preference to our current professors, but always welcome a new face.