Tufts pauses prison reentry program after shooting charge

Tufts University paused its MyTERN prison reentry program and is auditing all prison education offerings. The action followed a former participant being charged in a May shooting in Cambridge, Massachusetts, roughly 20 minutes from campus. The program is under review after the off-campus incident.

Context of the program and its national significance

The Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College, known as TUPIT, was established in 2016. The university's prison education efforts have been active for a decade. The alleged shooter participated in Tufts’ Education and Reentry Network, called MyTERN.

MyTERN is designed to help formerly incarcerated students reintegrate into life outside prison. Before the pause, it offered a comprehensive suite of support.

Lee Perlman, cofounder of The Educational Justice Institute at MIT, said the Tufts reentry program was regarded as a national model. It was considered a model because it offered credit-bearing classes post-release. The program helped students meet basic needs and created a community for people with similar experiences.

Broader trends and advocacy in prison education

TUPIT is one of dozens of similar programs across the country that allow incarcerated people to take classes in prison. Such programs, sometimes involving nonincarcerated students, originated more than 100 years ago.

Growth in prison education programs has been seen since 2023. That year, an almost 30-year ban on Pell grants for incarcerated people was lifted. Advocates cite research showing education reduces recidivism by improving self-image and job prospects after release.

Responses from experts and university leaders

Lee Perlman has been teaching in prisons since the 1980s and co-founded the Massachusetts Prison Education Consortium in 2017. He taught a class on the 'philosophy of love' in the Tufts program last spring. He defended the program's value, rejecting the pause as disproportionate.

Perlman said one participant committing a crime does not change the program’s success. He stated the shooter did not commit violence because of education. "It changes mindsets," Perlman said. "I’ve experienced my students in prison as falling in love with thinking and understanding and analyzing." He argued the program’s inability to stop someone with underlying mental health issues is not an indictment of the program.

Patrick Collins, Tufts’ executive director of media relations, said in an email that the shared goal is to ensure TUPIT receives administrative support and resources. University leaders stated the audit aims to ensure the program meets university standards to 'safeguard the well-being of all students, faculty and staff.'

Tufts provost and senior vice president ad interim Joe Auner wrote in an update earlier this month that findings from the review were forthcoming. Collins declined to answer questions about whether MyTERN would resume after this academic year. He said they are working to connect participants with partners and other sources of support for ongoing assistance.

Since classes resumed at Tufts, students and faculty have protested the decision to pause MyTERN. Sergio Grossi, a professor of criminology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said it remains fundamental to empower incarcerated people through education. He noted education in prison is complicated because some people inside have committed harm and are also harmed by the system, yet continue to do harm.

A faculty and staff workgroup convened over the summer will evaluate the recommendations from the ongoing audit.