Berkeley School of Education @ San Quentin

This program will offer a pathway to a Bachelor's Degree in Educational Sciences at San Quentin's Learning Center.  

Project Goal

UC Berkeley faculty, students, and staff have a long history of supporting educational efforts at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQRC) through tutoring, class offerings, and evaluation research. However, incarcerated individuals at San Quentin have never had the opportunity to earn a four-year degree from UC Berkeley. We propose to change this by establishing a Bachelor of Science degree program in Educational Sciences at SQRC, open to eligible incarcerated men throughout California’s prison system. Among California’s 90,000 male prisoners in the CDCR system in California, 65,000 have completed high school, and 12,000 are currently pursuing higher education. Providing postsecondary education to individuals impacted by the justice system results in substantial social and economic benefits for society, communities, families, and students, and helps to redress inequitable access to education for people of color who are over-represented in the justice system. Our program will aim to select and support 25 qualified candidates each year, offering them the opportunity to earn a Berkeley degree.  This initiative will serve as an example of transformative justice in higher education, in keeping with the Berkeley School of Education’s commitment to equity in public education.

Project Timeline

Collaborative Design with the Berkeley Underground Scholars

The program is anchored by a structural partnership with Berkeley Underground Scholars (BUS), whose staff leverage a sophisticated statewide network to identify prospective students and define the specific supports required for successful eligibility and admission. This collaboration integrates their unique regional expertise directly into our institutional framework, driving the growth of justice-centered education at the Berkeley School of Education. By centering BUS staff as key architects of this pipeline, we are creating a scalable model that establishes a new standard for how universities can authentically support system-impacted scholars from incarceration to graduation.