Presentations

ISP Presentation at the Summit on Inmate & Re-entry Education: Building a Pipeline to Success

The Incarcerated Student Program's presentation at the principles conference in Galt, Ca.

Dianne Lipscomb is a former Incarcerated Student Program Art instructor. She was given the opportunity to present this information about our program in Oxford at a round table conference.

Abstract:

Imagine a city of women, 4,000 strong, dressed in blue, confined in a modern fortress, enclosed by electrified fences topped by jagged rounds of wire, and with courtyards dappled by shooter towers at strategic locations. Life here is unlike that on the outside, yet strangely similar. This is the largest women’s prison in the world, the California Correctional Center at Chowchilla, California, in the heart of the Central Valley. The women retained here come from every ethnicity, have varied sentences, from relatively short to death row, have varied ages and health, and they live as a large unit of humanity, on the inside of the prison walls, yet so little is known about them. Those eligible receive academic education, work, and vocational training, hopefully for successful reintegration into society, although some participants will never be released. Add to this picture a small college from the north end of the state, tucked in the Sierra Mountains, some six hours away, providing this incarcerated population a community college degree program with on-site visits by instructors. The pedagogical experiences of the faculty are priceless, and for the women they serve, books and art become a mental ticket to other worlds, beyond the prison walls.

Read the Full Presentation Here