Less than 4% of formerly incarcerated people have a college degree, compared to 29% of the general public.
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The Berkeley Undergrounds Scholars (BUS) is a program for students who have been directly impacted by the criminal punishment system, including formerly incarcerated people or those with incarcerated family members.
A discussion of the program and its aim to shift the School-to-Prison pipeline to a Prison-to-School pipeline using higher education as an alternative to incarceration was held on Feb 4, 2020 at the Free Speech Movement Café. Speakers included Azadeh Zohrabi (BUS Director), David Harding (Professor, Department of Sociology), filmmaker Skylar Economy, and scholar members of the Underground Scholars Initiative.
“School was an escape for me,” said Elster. “I was learning new things, and remembering that there was more to the world than those prison walls and the neighborhood that I had been confined to for so long: It was liberating.”
- Aminah Elster
