A Note From the CM-Tech Team

Please pardon the mess, we are in the process of moving to a new website hosting service and after the new site is live, this one will be decommissioned.

Admittedly the public-facing website has been low on our list of priorities because our digital text-based educational resources are primarily uploaded to the Edovo Learn platform, which is available to over 1 million presently incarcerated individuals through a secure prison tablet e-learning app available in over 1,400 carceral facilities in the US.

We also have over 200 videos primarily on STEM available on a YouTube Channel that we share with the Cade Moore Foundation that anyone can access anywhere at any time.

About Us

Our long-term focus is on Workforce Development through STEM Education and Vocational Training for the Skilled Trades.  We intend to specialize in preparing learners for careers that literally do not even exist yet but will in the coming decades.

We have identified some areas where there is likely to be a massive labor shortage in the next decade without intervention from organizations like ours.

We focus on prison education not necessarily out of altruism but because even if Every. Single. Prisoner locked up in the United States today decided to dedicate the rest of their lives to certain fields/technologies - it still probably would not be enough to address the impending labor shortage we will likely face without outside intervention.

The Cade Moore Polytechnic Institute (CM-Tech) is a volunteer-led initiative and learning framework on a fast track to democratize carceral education by supporting education by the people for the people.

When it comes to prison education, the question isn't "Can we afford it?" but "Can we afford not to?"

Our Impact

In just eight months, our 100% justice-impacted, volunteer-led team has reached nearly 400,000 learners across 1,400 carceral facilities nationwide.

We've created a course catalog full of engaging, accessible, and down-to-earth learning materials across a wide variety of subjects.  STEM education and vocational training for the skilled trades have been our highest priorities to provide incarcerated learners with real skills for the real world.

Each course was developed through the lens of lived experience navigating the justice system to equip learners with the nuanced wisdom that that only someone who's also been there can provide.

We believe that prison education should flow freely to the people and offer tuition-free learning both digitally and through a decentralized network of Learning Circles.  Also sometimes situationally referred to as charters.

As we do not receive Department of Education funds, we are not mandated to adhere to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Laws but choose to prioritize learner privacy anyways.

Learning Circles - A collection of students who share resources

But it can get rather time consuming to process and mail out individual certificates.  A collective of students can pool their paperwork together and send it in one bundle to save them on postage costs and us time on going through all of the mail, especially if they include a: 

• 1-page cover sheet detailing what certificates are due to who

• If the certificates should be printed and mailed out, and if so to where.

• Or if they have access to a printer and someone at the facility is willing to share their email address, specify what email address we can send a zip file of completed certificates to.

Charter - A 3rd party using and / or building on our curricula 

Our curricula is available to other academic / non-commercial institutions to use as a starting point or to put their own unique spin on it.

Many facilities already have established learning programs hosted internally or by outside organizations.  Students are welcome to create their own charter school, but it is their responsibility to make sure they are following all applicable laws and the rules of their particular facility.

Satellite Campus (2+ years away):  An official Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is agreed upon between the facility administration and CM-Tech.

Given that CM-Tech is tuition-free, accreditation hasn't been a high priority for us - but it is on the roadmap.

There are a number of other hoops that CM-Tech and the satellite campuses would have to jump through, but once all of those administrative hurdles are cleared, learners would be able to access Pell Grant funds.  Given that each satellite campus would be mostly autonomous, it would be up to the satellite campus' Student Government Association (SGA) to determine what tuition and fees to charge for what courses and how to allocate their budget effectively.

Facilities have a financial incentive to allow educational institutions to treat their facility like a satellite campus.  They are allowed to charge the educational institution for Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs.  It would be meant to cover increased utility usage, extra security for visiting lecturers/tutors, etc.  F&A and other factors like what insurance should be carried by who (e.g. GL, EPLI, etc.) would be outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding.