Jason Jenkins had spent 14 years in prison before he used a computer for the first time in 2021.

Now, the 42-year-old inmate is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies, taking on a full-time course schedule while incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.

The number of incarcerated students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program while serving time in a state prison stands at 495 and has more than doubled in the last three years, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

A crown jewel of this effort is San Quentin’s new state-funded $239-million education facility. It features outdoor classrooms, music and podcast recording studios and a library with open stacks, where incarcerated students can freely browse instead of relying on clerks to check out books. The sleek buildings and artful landscaping stand in stark contrast to the imposing 174-year-old prison buildings where men live and sleep just across the concrete yard.

Adding an education facility was the right thing to do, Warden Chance Andes said, considering that people who pursue higher education while incarcerated are less likely to return to prison and less likely to victimize others.

“We don’t want more victims. That’s the bottom line,” he said.

Jenkins, who has served nearly two decades of his 43-year sentence for aggravated mayhem and carjacking convictions, said the new learning facility, which enables the incarcerated men to see the San Francisco Bay from the second- and third-story balconies, gives him hope.

After a near-death experience of overdosing on drugs while incarcerated in 2013, Jenkins told EdSource he had a religious awakening and created two goals for himself: read the Bible and get an education. After completing several associate degrees while incarcerated, Jenkins is taking courses in social Darwinism and art history as part of an educational partnership between the prison and Cal State L.A.

Preventing repeat offenders

In 2014, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation to fund community college courses inside jails and prisons, part of a slate of criminal justice and prison reforms to reduce the rate of people returning to prison after serving their sentences. More than a decade later, California’s higher education offerings in prisons include 13 bachelor’s degree programs with nearly 500 graduates to date, with plans for further expansion.

UC Santa Barbara, for instance, will enroll students for a 2027 program at a state prison in Corcoran. UC Riverside, which already operates one program in Riverside County, will expand to a second prison in the Inland Empire in the coming years. Cal State L.A., which runs the San Quentin program, plans to launch a bachelor of science degree program in rehabilitation services by 2028 at the correctional facility in Lancaster.

Since these programs were first offered a decade ago, universities have reported granting at least 390 bachelor’s degrees to incarcerated students. The department reported that even more inmates received bachelor’s degrees through correspondence programs.

Directors of prison bachelor’s degree programs noted that not every student who enrolls ends up graduating while incarcerated. Several have gone on to finish their degrees on campus after being released from prison.

“Our students feel seen and heard, and they feel like they are part of a community,” said Farah Godrej, a UC Riverside professor and co-founder of the program inside the Ironwood State Prison in Blythe. “I think you can’t underestimate what that does for a person’s self-understanding and their self-image.”

Funding for the classes comes from a combination of sources, including the colleges as well as the state and federal governments. School officials said the program should be expanded, and they would welcome more state funding to make it more feasible.

Most of CDCR’s higher education offerings are for associate degrees. Nearly 10,000 incarcerated students are enrolled in community college programs that operate in all 30 state prisons, according to the department.

Giving an inmate access to a degree program of choice can be tricky. The CDCR tries to accommodate inmates’ requests to move to facilities where their desired bachelor’s degree programs are offered. In the 2025-26 admissions cycle, the department moved 83 students for bachelor’s degree programs.

Bidhan Roy, Cal State L.A.’s Prison Graduation Initiative program director, said one of his long-term goals is for some formerly incarcerated participants in the program to return to prison to teach as faculty.

“One of the things we try to do is model life on the outside,” Roy said. “When you can have a space that you can be freer in, not be hypervigilant in, think and be treated as a human being, you’re really kind of given the experience of rehabilitation.”

The “human interactions” with professors and volunteers are one of the most valuable parts of his college classes, said Jenkins, the San Quentin student. Those connections have helped him stay focused on his degree in preparation for his parole hearing in 2030.

Jenkins said many of the incarcerated at San Quentin are curious about the bachelor’s program but are waiting to sign up until they know how difficult it is to complete the degree.

“Hopefully they will join when they see the benefits,” he said.

This story was originally published by EdSource.

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