Indiana Prison Liberal Arts Network (IPLAN)

The University of Notre Dame is committed to providing incarcerated students the opportunity to earn meaningful, equitable, high-quality liberal arts education. To broaden its reach to serve more incarcerated students statewide, the Indiana Prison Liberal Arts Network was created in July, 2022 to:

• Advance the strategic priorities of existing prison education programs while catalyzing new, collaborative efforts of higher education institutions (HEI’s) across the state and / or national landscape.
• Serve as a statewide training center and a national resource on college-in-prison higher education for organizations and educational institutions through:
  • leadership conferences
  • research seminars
  • training workshops
  • networking, best-practice/resource support
  • alumni program development
  • impact assessment
• Raise public consciousness of the impact of higher education on incarcerated populations through multidisciplinary research and scholarly work across multiple institutional partners.

In addition to the University of Notre Dame, founding members of IPLAN include Holy Cross College and Marian University. Membership is invited from Indiana HEI’s that award liberal arts degrees, and who are willing to collaborate on college educational programs within Indiana Department of Corrections’ facilities. Members commit to participate in the IPLAN Executive Steering Committee, which will set parameters for membership responsibilities and develop a statewide action plan for the initiative.  IPLAN will be staffed by the NDPEP Director and staff.