Higher Education in Prison program prepares a pathway for more students

In the last four years, PSU’s Higher Education in Prison (HEP) program has grown from a single class offered at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility to a bachelor’s degree program with a college readiness navigator — and will continue its growth into 2023 with Pell Grant funding, online courses and a new full-time program administrator to guide HEP into the future.

That growth has been largely driven by Deb Arthur, a professor with PSU’s University Studies Program, who started the program in 2019 and has advocated for Portland State’s role in leading education for incarcerated students. 

“I feel like it's been my honor to push this boulder uphill and develop this program and help position it. I had the privilege and the positionality to be able to do that,” Arthur said. “Now we’ve arrived, and it’s time for me to move out of the way.” 

Vice Provost of Student Success Erica Wagner worked with Arthur to advocate for funding to hire a full-time program administrator, which was recently approved by Provost Susan Jeffords.

“Not only is this the right thing to do because we are the university that needs to be serving this population of students, but it makes a lot of financial sense for us,” Wagner said.

Historically, only 9% of incarcerated students nationwide are able to complete their degrees, which Wagner said makes the HEP program a student success issue.

“We don't want to just have students taking a few classes,” she added. “We want them to be able to go all the way, graduate and get the job.”

Hiring a program administrator signals a turning point for the HEP program.

“It's more than dropping into prison and offering some classes. It's about walking with people as we build the pathway for them to truly succeed and the more opportunity we have to be there for them when they release their brilliant minds,” Arthur said. “We need them.”

Providing that space for previously incarcerated students to feel supported is just one reason why it’s important to Arthur that the new program administrator has lived experience in the prison system. That experience will lend agency and integrity to the position and the program at large.

That opportunity for transformation and success is a social justice issue — and an issue in line with PSU’s mission. 

“We don't just provide access to education, but we really, in providing that access, we help to transform people's lives and improve their economic and social mobility,” Wagner said. “So to me, this is just another population that we are meant to serve.”

Rachel Guirsch is one of two students recently released from Coffee Creek and able to continue their education at Portland State.

“HEP gave me a place to be and it gave me a place to call my own,” she said. “It wasn’t so hard to leave my community and come to a new community because I had been participating in a community in prison — but I also know my community is coming.”

Lisa Guirsch also joined Portland State in the fall term after being released from Coffee Creek. 

“I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have the support that I have through the HEP program. They were my support while I was in prison, now they're my support out here,” she said. “Not that I would be choosing a different lifestyle or path, I would just be lost without them.”

Rachel Guirsch added that she could have never predicted that she’d be continuing her higher education on campus, but the immense support she feels from PSU and Arthur made it possible. 

As the latest addition to the program gets underway, Lisa Guirsch remarked that she and Rachel Guirsch have hit the ground running — guided by the HEP program.

“I don't think we've touched ground since we've been out,” Lisa Guirsch said. “We've packed probably six months into this little short life, so I'm really excited to see what this is going to bring us and what this is going to do for us in the future.”