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.
The graduation came about a year and a half after the program relocated from Stateville Correctional Center, which a federal judge ordered 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.
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 Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.
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.
"Education is liberation and your freedom is what I want to celebrate this morning,” he said.
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.
"Right now, we need to expand access to higher education in prisons
