The Eastern Michigan University Undergraduate Research Symposium will feature incarcerated students enrolled in the university’s College in Prison Program in a first-of-its-kind occasion for Michigan.
Eleven incarcerated students and one recently released student from the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility will share their academic research with the public at EMU’s Research Symposium.
Meghan Lechner is the Director of EMU’s College in Prison Program. She says since the program started in 2023, it has grown to have 50 students and has been a positive factor for the inmates.
“Behavior concerns have gone down. Students are more engaged. Students in their prison life are happier. They cause fewer problems, and they’re remaining healthier people, which is really what we want."
Lechner says allowing incarcerated students to share the fruits of their higher education research helps rehabilitate them and be welcomed back into society upon release.
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