ABOUT US
Our History
The Redemption Project
The Prison Reform and Education Project (PREP) was founded in November of 2013 as the Redemption Project. We began by lobbying for solitary confinement reform in New York State. Redemption Project members contacted members of the NY state legislature to lobby for the passage of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, which creates rehabilitative alternatives to solitary confinement and limits the length of time inmates can be placed in solitary confinement. During the Spring 2014 semester, our scope expanded to raising awareness and engaging the student body through a public film screening and quarter-carding campaigns. Over the Summer of 2014, we changed our name to the Prison Reform and Education Project (PREP) to further broaden our scope and reflect our expanded research and education role. Over the Spring of 2019, we transitioned to a general body and project-team structure in order to complement our increasingly ambitious goals.
2015-2016 Academic Year
PREP organized and led a campaign to Ban the Box at Cornell University. The campaign led to Cornell's commitment to remove the conviction question from its job applications by July 1st, 2016.
2018-2019 Academic Year
PREP worked with Cornell University Admissions to substantiate admissions policy and to create an admissions webpage dedicated to adjudicated applicants: visit here or email us directly with any questions about applying or being a student at Cornell.​
2019-2020 Academic Year
PREP continued it's advocacy and tutoring work. As meetings became remote, PREP still had biweekly meetings where members came together to discuss important criminal justice issues.​
2020-2021 Academic Year
PREP continued working with College Initiative Upstate and lobbied a bill to repeal the ban on Pell Grants within the Cornell administration. PREP also partnered with partnered with the Sexual Violence Prevention Network on campus to host a speaker event, and Cornell Votes! to engage general body members in a case study on voter disenfranchisement.​
2021-2023 Academic Years
PREP created three advocacy teams: Death Row Lobbying, Cornell Divestment, and Prison Education Tutoring and Outreach. The first raised awareness across Cornell campus and advocated for Melissa Lucio's release. Cornell Divestment researched the university's investments into organizations using prison labor. Prison Education Tutoring and Outreach partnered with Petey Greene to tutor incarcerated students.
OUR MISSION
To humanize the American experience of incarceration and reentry.
​To do our part in putting an end to the Prison Industrial Complex that has dramatically increased the number of U.S. prisoners, broken families, and shattered communities; and which has limited historically marginalized peoples’ access to adequate housing and education, cost taxpayers millions, and simultaneously failed to keep us safe.
WHAT WE DO
PREP is organized around three pillars: education, advocacy, and service. We strive to raise awareness on campus about issues relating to mass incarceration and criminal justice through discussions, public speaking events, service projects, and educational campaigns. We also lead and support direct actions around prison reform efforts in the immediate community and in the New York State legislature. Please revisit this site soon to learn more about our upcoming projects this fall semester.
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PREP is also a part of the Cornell Criminal Justice Coalition, a collective of student organizations dedicated to advocacy and justice surrounding the criminal legal system.