Prison No Education: Black man in dark winter jacket, hat and pants stands leaning against front of bright red semi-truck parked next to a white semi-truck on asphalt parking lot under gray, rainy sky

Many states don’t educate people sentenced to life. Now some are coming home.

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When Yusef Qualls-El was 17, a judge sentenced him to life behind bars. It was the mid-1990s, an era when the U.S. prison population exploded. Thousands of minors like Qualls-El received sentences of life without parole and entered prison at an age when their peers were going to college or starting their careers. But inside, education is often reserved for those who will soon return to society. As a result, those who were seen as the least likely to get out had the fewest opportunities.

Prison College by Cell Phone: IIlustration od man in range jumpsuit walking out of cellphone the size of a doorway inti a desert landsacaoe with mountains in background at sunet with purple and orange sky

How an illicit cell phone helped me take college courses from prison

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On the first day of Zoom classes, my professor went straight into content that I’m all too familiar with: the school-to-prison pipeline. Every day as a certified peer support specialist at a maximum security prison, I see the long-term impacts of poverty and a broken K-12 system in marginalized communities. I’m taking the class on a contraband cell phone. Now, I’m connected to the world.

Learning to thrive after doing time: young black man in graduation garb standing next to older black woman smiling

Learning to thrive after doing time

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To some in the audience, Jeremy White sounding like he was preaching.

“I was 19 years old when I got incarcerated. I was facing 120 years,” White, 42, said, his words deliberate, his cadence suited for a Sunday morning pulpit, his Tennessee drawl full on.

“ … [I began] remembering where I came from … ”

“That’s good, that’s good!” Vickie Woodard exclaimed.