Project Summary

Muhlenberg College is expanding its Inside-Out Prison Exchange programming at Lehigh County Jail and launching a Civic Reentry Think Tank that connects incarcerated students, system-impacted leaders, and community members. The initiative deepens educational access while creating a collaborative platform to explore justice, reentry, and civic engagement across the Lehigh Valley.

Key Activities

• Offer two semester-long Inside-Out courses, enrolling incarcerated and campus-based students together for credit-bearing study.

• Establish a weekly Civic Reentry Think Tank co-facilitated by system-impacted leaders and community participants.

• Train additional faculty through the national Inside-Out program and local professional development.

• Support student-facing needs including classroom materials, reentry workshop resources, and stipends for Think Tank facilitators.

• Develop curricular infrastructure to build toward a future microcredential or pathways for sustained academic progression.

Impact

By pairing rigorous academic coursework with a reentry-focused Think Tank, Muhlenberg is building an integrated model of education and civic engagement inside a county facility. The program empowers incarcerated learners as co-creators of knowledge while fostering dialogue with the broader community. Its holistic design offers a template for linking higher education with local reentry planning in jail contexts.