The Right to Education, Prison–University Partnerships, and Online Writing Pedagogy in the US Joe Lockard and Sherry Rankins-Robertson Abstract The essay addresses the right to education for inmates and the disappearance of postsecondary education from US prisons; Prison–University educational partnerships; and the potential of online programmes toward realization of education rights for US prisoners. As practical address to these issues, the article discusses an English department initiative to provide a partnership with prisons. As a creative example of how to reach all prison populations, this essay illustrates an online writing internship between undergraduate writing majors with primarily maximum-security inmates at the Penitentiary of New Mexico. By using online technology common on university campuses in the United States and elsewhere, the project has created a Prison–University bridge and educational service that can be replicated and scaled upward. Such digital work spurs new social activism within university communities. The Council of Europe, recognizing that the right to education is fundamental and applies to prisoners, issued recommendations in 1989. These called not only for full access to education, but held that education programming ‘should be like the education provided for similar age groups in the outside world, and the range of learning opportunities for prisoners should be as wide as possible’. 1 The implementation recommendations cover a wide range of prison education issues and suggest educational programming be coordinated with outside institutions to enable released prisoners to continue their education. 2 By contrast, US legislators and domestic policymakers take little or no cognizance of international human rights conventions as establishing norms regarding prison education. 3 There is intense political hostility among US cultural and legal isolationists directed Critical Survey Volume 23, Number 3, 2011: 23–39 doi: 10.3167/cs.2011.230303 ISSN 0011–1570 (Print), ISSN 1752–2293 (Online)