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The Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership is committed to improving the well-being of Morehouse College and surrounding community through our research, programming, scholarship programs, and community partnerships. This newsletter will highlight the Morehouse College Higher Education in Prisons [AYC-HEP] Initiative.
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Higher Education in Prisons Initiative
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Georgia has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world: 968 per 100,000 citizens. Nationally, the USA has incarceration rates of 664 per 100,000 citizens. In Georgia, 102,400 people are behind bars: 54,000 in state prisons, 39,000 in local jails, 7,900 in federal prisons, and 1,500 in juvenile correctional facilities. Over 4.2 million Georgians have a criminal record. The racial and ethnic makeup of the incarcerated population is disproportionate to the extreme: Black citizens are twice as likely as Latinos and thrice as likely as whites to end up behind bars in Georgia prisons. For a profile of incarceration rates in Georgia, see here.
The benefits of higher education in prison are compelling. As a case in point, access to higher education drastically reduces recidivism rates: National rates of recidivism in the US are 76.6%; for those who receive college-level education, the rate drops significantly to 13.7%. Some sources cite that “2 out of 3” released Georgians are back in prison within 5 years; recent data suggests that recidivism rates in Georgia are “now below 40%” within 3 years. For those students who complete the cycle of humanities courses associated with Common Good Atlanta, which began in 2008, recidivism rates are below 1%. Prison education is intrinsically valuable because it honors the human dignity of the incarcerated person and because it provides a restorative path to psychosocial transformation.
The AYC-HEP Initiative provides support to a cohort of Faculty Teaching Affiliates who teach humanities courses, either at Burruss Prison or Metro Reentry, and students who serve as AYC-HEP Student Ambassadors. The AYCGL also works with community partners on issues of reentry services and prison policy reform.
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AYC-HEP Meet-and-Greet: Mr. Spivey-Jones, center, together with faculty and students as well as community partners.
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AYC-HEP Faculty Teaching Affiliates: Over the past several years, fifteen members of the faculty at Morehouse College have taught, or are scheduled to teach in prisons as AYC-HEP Faculty Teaching Affiliates. In 2023, Morehouse faculty will pilot a second evening of programming at Metro Reentry Facility: Students at Metro will be offered a broad spectrum of pre-college or college-level courses and workshops.
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AYC-HEP Student Ambassadors: The AYCGL recently announced its first cohort of Higher Education in Prison (HEP) Student Ambassadors. This program is designed to complement the Andrew Young Center’s prison education programming. HEP Student Ambassadors provide support to Faculty Teaching Affiliates, both in prisons and jails, but they also work on campus at Morehouse to raise awareness on criminal justice issues, the value of prison education, and the impact of mass incarceration on our communities.
The members of the 2022/2023 Student Ambassador Program cohort are Caleb Dixon (Political Science, ’25), Calvin Bell III (Political Science, ’24), Maasai Coleman-Johnson (Sociology, ’25), Paul Sprowl (Biology, ’24), Alexander Byrd (Political Science, ’23), Basil Ghali (Psychology, ’23), LaDarrick Smith (Business Administration, ’25), Enosh Mutenda (Economics, ’25), Michael Henry (Political Science, ’23), and Odin Kano-Fayhe (CTEMS, ’26).
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AYC Scholar-in-Residence: Mr. Rodney Spivey-Jones.
Spivey-Jones graduated from Bard College, through the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) with a degree in Social Studies. His story is featured in Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s award-winning documentary, College Behind Bars. Here is the PBS link to an episode that features Mr. Spivey Jones: "Every Single Word Matters." Spivey-Jones was a founding member of the BPI Debate Union, which made international news for beating the Harvard Debate Team in 2015. His senior project, “Messianic Black Bodies,” a featured storyline in the documentary, was edited to include current events and published as “Black Disfigurement and the American Hieroglyphics of Race” in the A-line Journal. He has also published “College Programs in Prison Show the Value of Educating Every American” in The Appeal. Mr. Spivey-Jones has been a guest of JUSTICE IN AMERICA, with Josie Duffy Rice (listen here). During his on-campus visit to Morehouse, Mr. Spivey-Jones met with AYC-HEP faculty affiliates and student ambassadors, delivered the Psychology Department Gaffney Lecture, conducted research in the AUC library, and provided a Crown Forum talk titled, “A Conversation about Black Bodies” (see here). Mr. Spivey-Jones also participated in a “Talk Back” session with Oprah Winfrey Scholars and recorded an episode of the AYCGL student podcast, More Conversations, with an AYC-HEP Student Ambassador, Mr. Calvin Bell III (see here).
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The AYCGL is grateful to our local partners, especially Common Good Atlanta and the Georgia Coalition of Higher Education in Prisons, for their sustained support and encouragement.
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USAID/Morehouse MOU Signing and Visit by Administrator Samantha Power
On November 1, 2022, Samantha Power, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator, spent the day at Morehouse College to complete an MOU signing to establish a partnership between the Morehouse College Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership and USAID. The 5-year partnership will leverage the expertise of the AYCGL and USAID to meet cross-cutting global development needs and open more career opportunities, mentorship, and training pathways for Morehouse students to pursue the Foreign Service and careers in international development. The Agency will also support Morehouse’s growing network within the peacebuilding and conflict resolution space and encourage collaborations to support international social justice movements. In addition to the MOU signing with President David Thomas, Administrator Power toured the campus and met with students interested in diplomacy to share her leadership journey and experiences.
Second Annual RAND-AUC Consortium Policy Hackathon Focused on Justice Reinvestment
Students from Clark Atlanta University, Morris Brown College, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Pardee RAND Graduate School participated in the second annual RAND-AUC Policy Hackathon. Students collaborated to identify potential justice reinvestment policy options during a week-long virtual hackathon offered by the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, Pardee RAND Graduate School and the Institute for Social Justice Inquiry and Praxis in the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership. On November 2, 2022, the Hackathon concluded with final presentations from five teams. The team, “Justice League” won the competition for their research exploring the ‘foster care to prison pipeline.’ Congratulations to the AUC and Pardee RAND students who participated in the Hackathon.
Faculty Panel on STEM Leadership
On October 18, 2022, the AYCGL hosted a faculty panel discussion titled, “What does leadership in STEM look like?” The panel discussion featured Larry Blumer, Ph.D. (Professor of Biology), Triscia Hendrickson, Ph.D. (Professor of Biology, Associate Provost for Research & Student Training), and Jeffrey Handy, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor of Biology). The panel was moderated by JK Haynes, Ph.D. (David Packard Endowed Professor of Biology).
Leadership in Sports – A Day with NBA Senior Vice President George Land
On November 3, 2022, Mr. George Land (Senior Vice President, Head of Business Strategy and Operations, NBA Africa) delivered a Crown Forum Address followed by a Talk-Back session with students. He also recorded a MORE Conversations podcast with Oprah Winfrey scholar, Robert Malcolm. Mr. Land joined the NBA in 1992 where he created content for the multiple Emmy Award-winning team at NBA Entertainment for 20 years, including field production for Netflix’s The Last Dance. Immediately before joining NBA Africa, Mr. Land spent seven years with NBA China as part of the leadership team during which time the league’s business achieved unprecedented growth in China. Mr. Land presently teaches a special topics course, “Leadership in Sports,” in the Andrew Young Center’s Leadership Studies Program.
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Community Mini-Grants
The Institute for Social Justice Inquiry and Praxis, in collaboration with the Institute's community advisory board, has awarded mini-grants to five community-based organizations in the Atlanta Metropolitan area. The goal of these awards is to help support programming focused on wellness and building a stronger sense of community. Recipients of awards were identified through a collaborative community-based process. Awards will be made to:
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-Reginald and Dionne Smith Foundation: This project will disseminate wellness information with a priority on HIV, viral hepatitis and substance use disorders
-Beautiful Scars: This project supports hope and recovery for individuals struggling with mental illness and addictive disease
-5 Strong Scholarship Foundation: College preparation program
-Lady BurgAndy: Empowering forum serving women who are newly diagnosed with HIV
-Olmecca House: The purpose of Olmecca House is to build community through dance classes, conversations, and celebration with a focus on wellness
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Social Justice and Leadership Innovation Awards
The Institute for Research, Civic Engagement, and Policy will offer student leadership development opportunities during the spring semester. The Institute will provide Social Justice and Leadership Innovation Awards to support student research and community impact projects. Proposal development workshops will be held on November 14 and 18 that will enable students to turn their social justice concern into a clear plan of research and action. We are especially interested in supporting student research projects. Successful projects will receive mentorship, a community of fellow scholars, and a stipend.
Internship Opportunities with Gideon’s Promise
The AYCGL will offer internship opportunities with our community partner, Gideon’s Promise, one of the nation’s leading criminal legal system reform organizations. As a result of this internship, students will be able to understand the significance of public defenders to the administration of justice, appreciate the impact of nonprofit organizations, and practice professional habits. The program will run from mid-January to the end of the spring semester.
For more information about how to apply for these opportunities, visit our website here.
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UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
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March 23-25, 2023 The AYCGL will host a conference at Morehouse College, BEYOND BARS SOUTH. This conference will focus on the relationship between universities or colleges and neighborhoods. Gentrification, income inequality, and mass incarceration have transformed southern cities that are home to leading institutions of higher education. This conference will foster conversations, build relationships, and generate practical solutions for building strong and more resilient communities.
To register, click here.
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A Note of Gratitude to Our Sponsors
The work of the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors, including Coca Cola, Bank of America, Ms. Oprah Winfrey and the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, the SMASH Foundation, Delta Airlines, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Microsoft, the Julian Grace Foundation, The General, and the RAND Corporation. We wish to thank these donors for their sustained support of the AYCGL.
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