Yale Faculty of Arts & Sciences Senate Passes Resolution of Support for YPEI

On October 15, 2020 the Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences Senate passed a historic resolution of support for the Yale Prison Education Initiative, asking that the Yale administration urgently commit to, nurture, and expand our growing program.

The Faculty Senate's resolution concluded that "Yale’s support of prison education aligns with Yale’s mission and addresses a social justice crisis in the United States" in which "systemic racism in American institutions has led to mass incarceration of over 2.3 million people in the United States and disproportionately affects black, indigenous, and people of color."

We are extraordinarily grateful to the FAS Senate and its Committee on Diversity for their work to cement this expression of faculty support for YPEI; and to new Yale faculty members Elizabeth Hinton (Associate Professor of History and African American Studies and Professor of Law) and Philip Atiba Goff (Professor of African American Studies and Psychology) who gave powerful testimony in support of YPEI before the FAS Senate in September. As Professor Hinton said in stated remarks:

"It’s up to institutions like Yale to do their part in addressing what really is the most tangible expression of racial injustice in this country: mass incarceration. I’m looking forward now as a Yale faculty member to continuing to ensure that [YPEI's] work continues to expand and flourish, because it makes such a critical difference in the lives of many, many people."