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  "path": "/education/2026/04/18/northwestern-prison-education-program-holds-first-graduation-since-stateville-closure",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-19T00:52:42.895Z",
  "site": "https://www.wbez.org",
  "textContent": "<p>On Monday, the Northwestern Prison Education Program graduated its second class of 22 students — its first ceremony at Sheridan Correctional Center — as graduates received their bachelor's degrees from Northwestern University.</p><p>The graduation came about a year and a half after the program relocated from Stateville Correctional Center, which a <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/2024/09/17/stateville-prison-is-closing-heres-how-men-incarcerated-there-will-remember-it\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>federal judge ordered</u></a> emptied in August 2024 amid deteriorating conditions. Stateville had been home to several college programs, and the abrupt closure scattered students and programs across the state. Northwestern was able to move its program to Sheridan.</p><p>The ceremony drew a notable audience, including Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, Evanston Mayor and Daniel Biss, Illinois Department of Corrections Director Latoya Hughes, interim and emeritus president Henry Bienen, outgoing provost Kathleen Haggerty and provost-elect Erik Luijten, and featured a commencement address by <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://eji.org/bryan-stevenson/\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>Bryan Stevenson</u></a>, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.</p><p>Stevenson, an attorney and law professor who has spent decades representing people on death row and challenging mass incarceration, directed his remarks squarely at the graduates. He told them that by earning a degree from a top university, they were \"singing a new song\" that the country needed to hear.</p><p>\"Education is liberation and your freedom is what I want to celebrate this morning,” he said.</p><p>Stratton, who also attended the program's first graduation in November 2023 at Stateville, reflected on what those graduates have gone on to do — taking the LSAT, going to law school, writing novels, helping to exonerate people and serving as teaching assistants.</p><p>\"Right now, we need to expand access to higher education in prisons, not limit it,\" she said.</p><p>Since that first graduation, several of those students have made news. Benard McKinley became the first incarcerated person in Illinois to take the LSAT and is now enrolled at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law. <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/criminal-justice/2024/10/23/james-soto-exonerated-federal-lawsuit-civil-rights\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>James Soto</u></a>, who was exonerated after 42 years in prison and released in December 2023, came back inside Monday to support the new graduates. He has now applied and been accepted to several law schools.</p><p>Each of the graduates delivered remarks at the ceremony. Two who had already been released also came back inside for the occasion, said Jennifer Lackey, the program's founding director.</p><p>One graduate, Bryan “Ben Israel” Dean, told WBEZ that the journey from his first college class to walking across the stage took about 16 years. He almost walked away from the Northwestern program at one point when he was still at Stateville.</p><p>A friend he met through the program made him promise he would finish. When she walked up mid-interview Monday, Dean pointed to her. \"She's the one I thanked in my speech for not letting me quit,\" he said. \"Education has been the mechanism I've used to regain that humanity in myself.\"</p><p>The program currently has five cohorts at Sheridan and is mid-way through admissions for a sixth, Lackey said. It also has students enrolled at Logan Correctional Center, which is also slated for closure. The program's first cohort of women at Logan have completed their degrees, though their commencement has not yet been scheduled.</p><p><i>Charlotte West is a reporter for Open Campus, a non-profit newsroom covering higher education in the U.S. She reports on higher education in American prisons and jails.</i></p>",
  "title": "Northwestern Prison Education Program holds first graduation since Stateville closure",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-19T00:52:42.895Z"
}