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********This is the desktop & tablet/ipad version.

– Trinh via SSCERT WebTeam

Our Mission

Our mission is to make post-secondary education accessible to women and young people who are currently incarcerated, and to bring UCLA faculty and students to learn alongside them, thereby challenging bias, discrimination, and injustice in a shared and collaborative learning experience. This is an extraordinary opportunity for us to more fully realize UCLA’s mission as a public research institution: to create, disseminate and apply knowledge for the betterment of our global society.

Our Story

In 2015, women incarcerated at the California Institute for Women (CIW) wrote letters requesting a “Center for Incarceration Studies.” Their proposal called for higher education opportunities to cultivate critical thinking skills and innovative approaches to justice. Since 2015, the UCLA Prison Education Program has provided courses in seven carceral facilities in Southern California. Our courses bring UCLA students and faculty into prisons for classes and workshops with incarcerated students.

In 2022, the Center for Justice (CFJ) at UCLA was launched. CFJ works to end injustice and inequities on the basis of race, gender, class, sexual orientation and disability. We work to dismantle the prison industrial complex and racialized mass incarceration by expanding higher education, facilitating creative spaces, using transformative practices, and movement building on university campuses, in system-impacted communities and correctional facilities.

CFJ forges a collaborative hub using critical pedagogy, culturally-sustaining and multi-disciplinary methods. Linking prisons, classrooms, and grassroots organizations, our work is guided by those who experience incarceration and are system-impacted. We recognize equal access to education is at the heart of systemic and structural change towards justice.

********This is the Mobile version.

– Trinh via SSCERT WebTeam

Our Mission

Our mission is to make post-secondary education accessible to women and young people who are currently incarcerated, and to bring UCLA faculty and students to learn alongside them, thereby challenging bias, discrimination, and injustice in a shared and collaborative learning experience. This is an extraordinary opportunity for us to more fully realize UCLA’s mission as a public research institution: to create, disseminate and apply knowledge for the betterment of our global society.

Our Story

In 2015, women incarcerated at the California Institute for Women (CIW) wrote letters requesting a “Center for Incarceration Studies.” Their proposal called for higher education opportunities to cultivate critical thinking skills and innovative approaches to justice. Since 2015, the UCLA Prison Education Program has provided courses in seven carceral facilities in Southern California. Our courses bring UCLA students and faculty into prisons for classes and workshops with incarcerated students.

In 2022, the Center for Justice (CFJ) at UCLA was launched. CFJ works to end injustice and inequities on the basis of race, gender, class, sexual orientation and disability. We work to dismantle the prison industrial complex and racialized mass incarceration by expanding higher education, facilitating creative spaces, using transformative practices, and movement building on university campuses, in system-impacted communities and correctional facilities.

CFJ forges a collaborative hub using critical pedagogy, culturally-sustaining and multi-disciplinary methods. Linking prisons, classrooms, and grassroots organizations, our work is guided by those who experience incarceration and are system-impacted. We recognize equal access to education is at the heart of systemic and structural change towards justice. Visit https://prisoneduprogram.ucla.edu/ to learn more.

********This is the desktop & tablet/ipad version.

– Trinh via SSCERT WebTeam

Who We Are

Bryonn Bain

Founding Co-Director

Claudia Peña

Founding Co-Director

Jai Williams

Program Manager

Nicole Feliciano

Nicole Feliciano

Academic Coordinator

Learn more

The Math

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics 

********This is the Mobile version.

– Trinh via SSCERT WebTeam

Who We Are

Bryonn Bain

Founding Co-Director

Claudia Peña

Founding Co-Director

Jai Williams

Program Manager

Nicole Feliciano

Nicole Feliciano

Academic Coordinator

Learn more

The Math

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics 

Our Goals

  • Education & Research

    Bringing together “inside” incarcerated and “outside” university students, faculty and community members for higher education through courses, workshops and research.

  • Movement Building

    Imagining, creating and expanding local, national and global movements for a more humane justice system shaped by survivors of crime and mass incarceration.

  • Leadership

    Guiding and learning from the next generation of visionary artists, activists and scholars by centering justice and healing to transform our communities.

  • Advocacy

    People directly impacted by mass incarceration, collaborating with artists from all media, and using the arts & culture to change the law.

  • Mass Decarceration

    To create a new society based on HUMAN JUSTICE by ending the use of jails, prisons, detention centers and surveillance to address social problems – such as poverty, inadequate public education, mental illness and substance abuse.

Learn more

********This is the mobile version.

– Trinh via SSCERT WebTeam

  • Education & Research

    Bringing together “inside” incarcerated and “outside” university students, faculty and community members for higher education through courses, workshops and research.

  • Movement Building

    Imagining, creating and expanding local, national and global movements for a more humane justice system shaped by survivors of crime and mass incarceration.

  • Leadership

    Guiding and learning from the next generation of visionary artists, activists and scholars by centering justice and healing to transform our communities.

  • Advocacy

    People directly impacted by mass incarceration, collaborating with artists from all media, and using the arts & culture to change the law.

  • Mass Decarceration

    To create a new society based on HUMAN JUSTICE by ending the use of jails, prisons, detention centers and surveillance to address social problems – such as poverty, inadequate public education, mental illness and substance abuse.

Learn more

Follow us on Instagram!

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Contact Us

Address:
120 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA, 90095

Email:
Jai Williams, MA, MFA
jwilliams@pep.ucla.edu

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  • Center for Justice at UCLA
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