Graduations

Testimony from Graduation at High Desert State Prison - November 13th, 2015

Amazing day today at High Desert State Prison. Two of our students received their FRC Associate in Arts diplomas in Liberal Arts and Humanities. One graduation was at a ceremony with his family members in attendance. The other was in a housing unit with prisoners in cells watching above from their cells as I conferred the degree "with all its rights and privileges." The entire unit erupted in applause from prisoners on the galley while the song Pomp and Circumstance was whistled by a prisoner in a cell on the ground floor. Today, for a brief moment, the housing unit was a graduation hall and the prisoner was a college student. We are putting the R back in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation one degree at a time. Welcome to California's prison reform movement!

–Joan Parkin, Director- FRC Incarcerated Student Program