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Good practice Imported

Brave Behind Bars — Virtual Web Design Curriculum in US Prisons and Jails

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Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 66% 56/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A 12-week MIT-led virtual course teaches HTML, CSS and JavaScript to incarcerated students across five US prisons. A 2024 MIT/UMass Lowell study found strong qualitative confidence gains, but a 37-person quantitative pilot found no statistically significant self-efficacy change.

30 women
Participants in the original 2020 pilot (2020)
4
Correctional facilities in original pilot (2020)
5
Correctional facilities currently covered
34
Students in the 2022 qualitative study (2022)
37
Participants in the 2023-24 quantitative self-efficacy study (2023-24)
Brave Behind Bars — Virtual Web Design Curriculum in US Prisons and Jails

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
MIT Educational Justice Institute (TEJI) & Brave Initiatives
Period
2020-present
Keywords
corrections education, digital literacy, web development, reentry

Context

Brave Behind Bars is a virtual web-design and career-readiness course for incarcerated students, launched in 2020 by MIT PhD candidates Martin Nisser and Marisa Gaetz together with the nonprofit Brave Initiatives. What began as a pilot with 30 women across four New England correctional facilities has grown into a 12-week, college-accredited curriculum delivered synchronously online across five US correctional facilities, run in partnership with MIT's Educational Justice Institute (TEJI) and MIT CSAIL, with credit offered through Georgetown University, the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology and Washington County Community College.

Objectives

The course aims to build technical web-development skills and career-readiness alongside self-confidence for incarcerated students.

Activities

Students learn HTML, CSS and JavaScript, build a capstone website on a social issue they care about, and receive coaching on CVs and public speaking.

Results

A 2022 qualitative study of 34 students found consistent themes of increased self-confidence and motivation. A follow-up 2023–24 quantitative study of 37 participants, published as 'From Prisons to Programming: Fostering Self-Efficacy via Virtual Web Design Curricula in Prisons and Jails', used validated self-efficacy scales before and after the course; mean scores rose, but the change was not statistically significant.

Conclusions

The programme illustrates both the promise and the evidentiary limits of small-scale correctional digital-skills programmes: strong self-reported impact, but not yet large enough or long enough to demonstrate a statistically robust effect.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — No budget figures are disclosed; conservatively banded medium given synchronous multi-facility technology delivery and college-credit administration despite small student numbers.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Running continuously since the 2020 pilot, expanded from four to five facilities over roughly four years — ongoing as of 2024 reporting.
Staffing & skills
MIT PhD candidate founders (Martin Nisser, Marisa Gaetz), Brave Initiatives (nonprofit partner), MIT Educational Justice Institute (TEJI) and MIT CSAIL, Credit-granting institutions: Georgetown University, Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, Washington County Community College

Conditions for success

  • Synchronous live delivery across multiple correctional facilities
  • College-credit accreditation for completed coursework
  • Capstone project tied to a social issue plus CV and public-speaking coaching alongside technical skills

Common failure modes

  • The 2023-24 quantitative self-efficacy gains were not statistically significant at the current sample size (37 participants)
  • Small study samples (30-37 participants) limit generalisability of findings

Where it fits

Governance type
university-nonprofit partnership operating inside correctional facilities
Scale
5 correctional facilities (grown from a 4-facility New England pilot)
Income level
incarcerated population, typically low-income/underserved

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