Reimagining Reentry | Institute for Social Concerns

YEAR IN REVIEW

FROM INCARCERATION TO TRANSFORMATION

Reimagining Reentry

Michael Chaney walked out of Westville Correctional Facility in January after being incarcerated for seven years, one of more than 12,000 people released from Indiana prisons each year. While many returning citizens struggle to find work, things are looking up for Chaney in part thanks to his connections to the Institute.

While still incarcerated, Chaney completed his bachelor of arts through the Moreau College Initiative (MCI), a joint academic collaboration of the University of Notre Dame and Holy Cross College. While completing his degree, he met the Institute’s reentry staff, who facilitate courses and workshops addressing life skills, vocational discernment, employability, financial literacy, and recovery in the prison, while also including individualized transition plans with students nearing release as they prepare to return to their home communities. On May 17, Chaney walked at Holy Cross’s graduation, and he now has a well-paying job as a welder for a custom food truck manufacturing company.

Chaney credits his success to the Institute’s robust, holistic approach to education and reentry. In addition to helping him find stable housing and employment, Chaney’s meetings with reentry staff helped him find renewed meaning and purpose to life. Drawing from the wisdom gained through his experiences, Chaney participated in reviewing the Reentry Guide for Returning Citizens compiled by the Institute that will allow each returning citizen in Indiana to benefit from the same reentry best practices that benefitted Chaney.

A national leader in best practices not only for reentry but also for education in prison, the Institute partnered with the Jesuit Prison Education Network to co-host a conference at Notre Dame in October launching the Consortium for Catholic Higher Education in Prison. The goal of the consortium is to build support networks and cultivate a community of shared wisdom, experience, and evidence-based strategies aligned with the values of Catholic social teaching to enhance and sustain college programs inside prison facilities across the country in order to better prepare returning citizens for life on the outside.

“Teaching in the college-in-prison program has been immensely rewarding, as the students at Westville are as hungry, hardworking, and bright as any I’ve taught in nearly four decades at Notre Dame. It’s been inspiring to see them grow in confidence and skills and gratifying to see our graduates upon release become productive members of their communities.”
– STEPHEN M. FALLON, Emeritus John J. Cavanaugh Professor of the Humanities Professor of English

For the 2025–26 academic year, the Institute is expanding its capacity for carceral engagement through the addition of strategic fellowships. The Institute is privileged to welcome Michael Stayer, an American Institutes for Research (AIR) education in action fellow. One of only two fellows appointed nationally, Stayer will conduct research on higher education in prison programmatic resources. Additionally, the Institute welcomes its inaugural cohort of postbaccalaureate research fellows. This experience will enable Notre Dame graduates to spend a year engaged with the community, conduct research, and discern their vocational path to launch into a variety of professional and academic fields. Working on carceral engagement and reentry, fellows Wonu Fasasi and Hayden Kirwan will experience firsthand how the Institute advances Notre Dame’s mission of pursuing knowledge “as a powerful means for good.”