The Prison Studies Project is a group of students, teachers and researchers with a shared interest in the American penal system. The project promotes informed conversation about the challenges of mass incarceration through an interdisciplinary approach committed to education and policy change. PSP has developed a four-year partnership with Boston University's Prison Education Program and the Massachusetts Department of Correction.
Kaia Stern is Director of the Prison Studies Project. Her work focuses on transformative justice, human rights and education in prison. She has taught at Emory, Harvard, New York Theological Seminary, and the University of California as well as inside Norfolk, Framingham and Sing Sing prisons. Kaia's contribution to the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, Vera Institute of Justice, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, Kings County District Attorney's Office, OpenSociety Institute's After Prison Initiative, and Interfaith Justice Project at The Riverside Church has facilitated work with numerous schools and prisons in various states for the last sixteen years. She holds a doctorate in religion from Emory University, and a master's of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. Kaia is ordained as an interfaith minister.
