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17 incarcerated women earn Northwestern degrees in first women’s graduating class
Seventeen women in Illinois prisons have graduated from Northwestern University’s prison education program, the program’s first cohort of women to earn degrees. The students studied for six years, with Northwestern faculty making a seven-hour round trip to teach classes in person.
Seventeen women incarcerated in Illinois have graduated from Northwestern University through its prison education program, becoming the program’s first women’s cohort to earn degrees. The ceremony took place in Kewanee, where graduates celebrated an achievement built on six years of study.
The women, who took part in the program while at Logan Correctional Center, earned degrees from a university ranked among the nation’s top 10, according to the report. The program began in 2018; two cohorts of incarcerated men had graduated before the women.
Northwestern professor Jennifer Lackey, who leads the program, said the students showed resilience through significant challenges. Faculty members traveled about seven hours round trip to teach each three-hour class in person.
Among the graduates is Chelsea Raker, who is serving a 40-year sentence for armed robbery. She said the women around her had become examples of strength. Raker, who said she has been incarcerated for 10 years and has seen her son once during that time, described him as her motivation.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed the graduates at the ceremony, telling them she expected to offer wisdom but believed she could learn from them instead.
The program is intended to expand access to higher education for people in prison, an approach its supporters see as one way to help reduce recidivism. For the graduates, the diplomas mark both academic achievement and the possibility of new paths ahead.