Commencement at Donovan Prison
LIFTED, Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees, is the first in-prison BA-degree completion program in the University of California system. Piloted at UCI, LIFTED enables incarcerated individuals to apply to transfer into UCI as juniors and earn a bachelor’s degree from UCI while serving their sentence.
There has been a rare consensus among the public and politicians alike that it is time to reform the nation’s prison system. Among competing reform initiatives, there has been further consensus around the importance of creating and sustaining effective in-prison and re-entry programs for those who are currently incarcerated, at least 95 percent of whom will return to our communities. More specifically, the public and private sectors alike recognize the benefits of providing education to prisoners and former prisoners. For every $1 invested in prison education, RAND estimates a generation of $5 in economic return. A college education is, in fact, less expensive than a year in a California prison.