Prison Degree at Irvine

From KQED: UC Irvine and the state prison system have reached a deal to create the first University of California bachelor’s degree program behind bars. Since California opened the door for community colleges to teach in prisons in 2014, some 2,000 incarcerated men and women across the state have earned associate degrees, said Brant Choate, director of rehabilitative programs for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

But opportunities to earn more advanced degrees are largely limited to correspondence courses of sometimes questionable quality. “We know that people with bachelor's degrees just don't come back to prison,” Choate said, noting the plan's potential cost savings through reduced recidivism.

A major study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice found that inmates who participate in educational opportunities behind bars are more than 40% less likely to return to prison. Through the UC Irvine pilot project, an initial cohort of up to 25 men at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego will take courses toward a degree in sociology. The program relies on an existing transfer agreement between Southwestern College — a community college that runs an associate degree program inside the facility — and UC Irvine’s sociology department. The deal grants automatic admissibility to any Southwestern student who has completed the prerequisites for the major with a minimum 3.5 GPA...

Full story at https://www.kqed.org/news/11851182/uc-to-launch-its-first-bachelors-program-in-prison