Education Behind Bars: Article Three: San Quentin Prison University Project

San Quentin State Prison was established in 1852. The facility was built on Point Quentin (Marin County, California) by men incarcerated on a prison ship, the Waban, which was anchored in San Francisco Bay. The prison is the oldest in California and the only one in California with a “death row.” It is also the only one in California which provides an onsite degree granting college education for incarcerated individuals.


The Prison University Project began as a result of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. This law made incarcerated people ineligible for Pell Grants which are awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to help eligible low-income students pay for college costs, including tuition, fees, room and board, and other educational expenses.


In order to provide accessible low-cost education to incarcerated students, the College Program at San Quentin was founded in fall of 1996, based entirely on volunteer teaching and organization. As the College Program expanded and efforts to raise funds increased, it became known as the Prison University Project around 2003. The Prison University Project received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in September 2016. The program evolved into becoming Mount Tamalpais College in 2020.
And then…

“Mount Tamalpais College is proud to announce that on January 27, 2022, we were granted Initial Accreditation by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). This is a historic moment for Mount Tamalpais College, and a landmark event in a society that has persistently excluded the incarcerated from educational opportunity. San Quentin State Prison is now the site of an academic institution unlike any other in the US: an independent liberal arts college specifically dedicated to serving incarcerated students.” 


San Quentin state prison has an average resident population of 2,482 of which about 350 (7.1%) participate in the Mt. Tamalpais programs. Others may be able to take advantage of distance learning opportunities from other community colleges throughout California or universities and colleges in other states. This information is not documented by the institution which only collects data for its on-site programs and activities.

In addition to providing instruction, degrees, and post-prison support to incarcerated students, Mt. Tamalpais College is committed to sharing its success with other institutions. The evidence for the benefits of higher education in prisons is steadily accumulating. This is especially true as universities and colleges in nearly every state coordinate partnerships with penal institutions. Also, since most of the programs are not financed by tax-payer funding, the programs depend on volunteer educators and staff and competitive grants from appropriate non-profit organizations.


Grants generally require statistics and evidence that the donated money is achieving the goals of the grant. These required elements contribute to the growing body of knowledge regarding the benefits of higher education is prisons and provide the basis for developing policies, legislation, and funding-streams to ensure that in the future more incarcerated people are better prepared for life beyond bars; the communities they return to upon release from prison are safer for everyone; and the costs associated with recidivism can be greatly reduced.


In preparing this article, the following websites were particularly helpful:
Pell Grants https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Pell+Grants


Mt Tamalpais College https://www.mttamcollege.org/


Prison University Project https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2016/fall/feature/prison-university-project


San Quentin State Prison https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/research/reports-and-statistics-sq/


Higher Education in San Quentin State Prison https://www.luminafoundation.org/news-and-views/education-is-changing-lives-at-californias-san-quentin-prison/?utm_source=pocket_mylist


Alliance for Higher Education in Prison https://www.higheredinprison.org/


Higher Education in Prisons, University of California Irvine https://prisoneducation.uci.edu/


Images from Mt. Tamalpais College webpages -- https://www.mttamcollege.org/

Submitted by Cheryl Stewart
MOTAL Board member and Treasure