Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site

Log Number: MA-10-19-0645-19

Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site will revise and expand its Returning Citizens Tour Guide Project, which is designed to foster empathy in museum visitors, humanize mass incarceration, and provide a greater understanding of contemporary criminal justice issues. A new full-time managerial position will oversee the program, which will be renamed LEAD: Lived Experience Activating Dialogue. The museum will fill the position with a formerly incarcerated/returning citizen, whose lived experience will enhance related tours and public programs and promote diversity, inclusion, and access initiatives across the entire institution. The museum will also establish 12 LEAD fellowships for returning citizens who will support community partnerships for public programming and participate in training and professional development opportunities.