Inmates Find Hope in College Classes at San Quentin Prison

06 July 2011

Professor Sookyoung Lee teaches a class on critical thinking and research to inmates at San Quentin prison in California.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Last week we told you about a prison training program in the American Northwest. It teaches women in prison to start their own businesses after their release. Today we tell you about one of the few prisons in America that offer college-level classes: San Quentin State Prison in California.

Jody Lewen volunteered to teach in the college program at San Quentin in nineteen ninety-nine. She was a graduate student. The program had a small group of volunteers and no money. But a year later the director resigned. Ms. Lewen agreed to run the program until a permanent director could be found.

JODY LEWEN: "But once I started doing the work and got more deeply involved, I also began to see the potential the program had. And I started to think more and more about what this program could become. There was nobody else to run it. And I thought it would just be one of those failures for the rest of my life if I let it fold.”

The Prison University Project has expanded under Ms. Lewen's leadership. The goal is to prepare men to lead thoughtful and productive lives inside and outside of prison.

Twenty courses are offered each semester. Classes this spring included English, math, United States history, and Russian and Soviet history. Other courses included Asian-American theater, Spanish, biology, sociology, philosophy and criminal justice.