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.