California has long offered prison inmates the opportunity to take community college courses. The idea of college in prison has now expanded to eight programs that allow incarcerated people to earn college degrees.
Cal State Los Angeles was the first to graduate students as part of a longstanding program at CSU which includes two new programs for women at prisons in Chowchilla and Chino.
This year, the University of California at Irvine campus joined to grant bachelor’s degrees to incarcerated students in San Diego. And starting this fall, CSU Dominguez Hills will begin the state’s first master’s degree program in prison.
Supporters say a college degree dramatically reduces the chance that people released from prison will return.
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