Beyond Recidivism, Higher Education in Prison with Jody Lewen

Educating to Be Human Podcast

Welcome to Episode 10, the Season 1 finale of Educating to Be Human. Host Lisa Petrides sits down with Jody Lewen, President of Mt. Tamalpais College at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (formerly San Quentin Prison), the first accredited independent 2-year liberal arts college dedicated to incarcerated students. A visionary leader and tireless advocate for equitable access to education, Jody has spent over 20 years expanding higher education opportunities for incarcerated students. Her work at San Quentin challenges traditional ideas of who education is for and envisons learning as a tool for empowerment and purpose.

In this episode, Lisa and Jody discuss:

The realities and barriers of offering higher education in prison.

How to create inclusive learning spaces within correctional facilities.

The life-changing impact education has on incarcerated students.

Why education in prison matters for both the inside and outside world.

Jody Lewen is president of Mount Tamalpais College, at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California. MTC provides a liberal arts Associate of Arts degree, as well as an intensive college preparatory program, to approximately 300 people incarcerated at San Quentin. MTC also provides support to higher education in prison practitioners and other stakeholders, including correctional administrators, funders, policymakers, and media, on creating academically excellent, inclusive in-prison higher education programs. Dr. Lewen holds a Bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University (modern European history); a Master’s degree from the Freie Universität, Berlin (comparative literature and philosophy); and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. She was the recipient of the Peter E. Haas Public Service Award from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. In 2016, MTC (then the Prison University Project) received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama. In 2018, Dr. Lewen was named a Frederick Douglass 200 awardee. In 2023, California governor Gavin Newsom invited Dr. Lewen to join the San Quentin Transformation Advisory Council. This year, she was awarded the McGraw Prize in Education, recognizing her contributions to the field of higher education.

Resources:

https://www.mttamcollege.edu/

To donate to Mt Tamalpais College, visit: https://give.mttamcollege.edu/give/644102/#!/donation/checkout

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Follow Mt Tamalpais College at @mttamcollege