Welcome!

The Research Request Network (RRN), a program of the Yale Prison Education Initiative, supports incarcerated college students at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution (a state facility) and the Danbury Correctional Institution (a federal facility). The RRN enables these students to access library materials, which they need to complete their academic assignments, with the help of trained on-campus volunteers. Although the RRN is part of YPEI, it is overseen jointly by the Yale and University of New Haven Libraries.

A brief description of how the RRN works:

• A YPEI student at MacDougall-Walker or Danbury fills out a Research Request Form
• Completed forms are brought back to campus and distributed among RRN volunteers
• Once an RRN volunteer accepts a request, they have 72 hours to compile a response, which typically contains three elements: a short, friendly letter from the volunteer, the relevant materials, and a bibliography
• YPEI staff print out the response and return it to the incarcerated student

Please contact Emily Horning (Yale) or Lauren Slingluff (University of New Haven) for more information about the Research Request Network. If you are a Yale or UNH affiliate and would like to volunteer for the RRN, please click on the Get Involved tab above, or email RRN.requests@gmail.com.