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San Quentin’s Prison University Gives Inmates Freedom to Learn

Dec 29, 2014 No Comments

San Quentin is home to the Prison University Project, the largest on-site college-in-prison program among California state prisons. Inmates in PUP earn their associate’s degree for free, with volunteer instructors from schools like Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Opponents of higher education in prison, like those who voted down a proposal in New York earlier this year, say it’s wrong to give a taxpayer-funded degree to convicts. Some are fine with providing remedial and vocational education, but draw the line at college, a commodity families sacrifice thousands of dollars to give their children.

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School v. Prisons: Education’s The Way to Cut the Prison Population

Dec 26, 2014 No Comments

By Deborah Stipek and Kathryn Hanson Victor Hugo’s 19th-century remark, “He who opens a college door closes a prison,” still holds true these days. The connection between education and incarceration was made starkly clear at Stanford’s 2014 Cubberley Lecture, exactly where actress Anna Deveare Smith brought to life the difficulties facing disadvantaged youth in American schools

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Why Is Sweden Closing Its Prisons?

Dec 26, 2014 No Comments

By Dianne Frazee-Walker Sweden is doing something to lower the recidivism rate and forcing prisons to close because they are taking a different approach to crime and punishment. Globally, we need to pay close attention to what Sweden is doing. The sentences are not as long in Sweden, which makes prison authorities realize the work

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Weber: The Promise of Education

Dec 24, 2014 No Comments

By Eric Thomas Weber In the dozen years that I have been teaching, two moments stand out as the most gripping experiences I have had in my classes. With a group of freshmen sitting by the Honors College fountain at the University of Mississippi, we once talked about philosopher John Lachs’s book, In Love with

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California: Lack of Insight Cannot Be Inferred

Dec 24, 2014 No Comments

By Michael Brodheim In the wake of the California Supreme Court’s ruling in In Re Shaputis, 53 Cal. 4th 192 (Cal. 2011) [PLN, Aug. 2012, p.16], lower courts in California continue to struggle with the issue of whether a denial of parole predicated on “lack of insight” is supported, in any given case, by the

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Veterans to Receive More Help in Great Britain’s Prisons

Dec 23, 2014 No Comments

By Dianne Frazee-Walker Prisons in England and Wales are starting out the New Year with a new policy that honors veteran service personnel inmates. Upon reviewing just how the criminal justice system deals with veteran prisoners, the English government has established a new approach that recognizes and supports veteran prisoners upon entry and release and

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Three young men in graduation gowns and mortarboards smiling and holding diplomas indoors.

Graduation Day for Auburn Prison Inmates

Dec 22, 2014 No Comments

By Keri Blakinger On Wednesday, Dec. 10, a group of 13 students looking much like any other group of graduates walked across the stage to accept their diplomas as the Class of 2014. Unlike most college graduates, though, this group was entirely comprised of prisoners, inmates at Auburn Correctional Facility, the state’s oldest prison.  The

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An open book with reading glasses, surrounded by study materials and a laptop, ideal for education themes.

Cornell Prison Education Program Gives Auburn Inmates New Hope

Dec 19, 2014 No Comments

By Lauren Mazzo and Emily Hull / Just Ithaca For many modern-day high school students, graduating with a college-level degree is simply the next logical step in life; but for the 15 students of Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP) who will graduate on Dec. 10, it means a better chance at a jail-free future. CPEP is

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Man in uniform stands pensively by barred prison wall, illuminated by dim light.

Ninth Circuit: Heck Allows Section 1983 Parole Condition Challenges

Dec 19, 2014 No Comments

By Mark Wilson On July 31, 2013, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals joined the Seventh Circuit in holding that the Heck doctrine does not bar all parole condition challenges brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. California’s Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act of 2006 – also known as Jessica’s Law or Proposition 83 –

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