A program at San Francisco State University has quietly been helping former prisoners earn college degrees for decades. Now, it’s gaining wider attention as schools around the state begin to look for ways to help formerly incarcerated men and women gain access to higher education.
In 1967, John Irwin, who had been incarcerated before becoming a sociology professor at SF State, launched Project Rebound. The idea was that helping formerly incarcerated people earn degrees would drastically limit the chances that they would end up behind bars again. Nearly 50 years later, that’s proven to be the case. In California, more than half of the people released from prison wind up behind bars again. But just 3 percent of Project Rebound students return to prison, according to 2010 figures. Graduation rates for Project Rebound students are high, too; more than 90 percent eventually graduate, while the university’s overall graduation rate is closer to 50 percent.
[For more of this story, written by Emily Deruy, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/edu...lege-student/497579/]
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