In 2017, Amy Remensnyder penned "History Behind Bars: The Brown History Education Prison Project" for Volume 31 (page 16) of "History Matters" — the department's annual newsletter. 

“A steel door several inches thick makes a distinctive sound when it slams shut and locks you into the expanse of the prison yard that soon will be crowded with inmates in khaki uniforms. It is a noise with which a group of History faculty has become familiar since 2012. In that year, in conjunction with some of my colleagues, I founded the Brown History Education Prison Program (BHEPP), a program inspired by the belief that education is a basic right—and driven by the knowledge that not every one in the US has equal access to this right.

Among the most educationally disadvantaged people in this country are those millions of men and women behind bars, the majority of whom lack a high school degree or its equivalent when they begin their prison sentences. In the era of mass incarceration, public funding has been slashed for educational programs for prisoners. The BHEPP faculty—Jonathan Conant, Linford Fisher, Nancy Jacobs, Rebecca Nedostup, Emily Owens, Daniel Rodriguez, Naoko Shibusawa, Michael Vorenberg, and myself—join other professors across the country who volunteer their time to teach in prison.

History 150C (Locked Up: A Global History of Prison and Captivity) and prisoner-students taking a version of the same course. BHEPP courses do not carry college credit, but they provide incarcerated students with "earned time." that is, a certain number of days reduced from their sentences. But perhaps sometime soon that will change. In conjunction with the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and other organizations and individuals at Brown interested in the issue of incarceration, BHEPP is working to create the Brown Incarceration Initiative, which will seek to offer courses bearing Brown credit in the prison. In the meantime, the learning partnership between BHEPP faculty and students will continue.” — Amy Remensnyder

• Jack Brook, "Classmates Behind Bars" (Brown Alumni Magazine, July 2019) 

• Jeremy Pontbriant, "A Testament to the Power of Education in Prison" (Brown Daily Herald, September 5, 2018)

• Sophie Kupetz, "In Favor of the Brown Incarceration Initiative" (Brown Daily Herald, September 5, 2018)