Yale Prison Education Initiative celebrates 10 years of changing lives

Program provides college degrees to incarcerated individuals, expanding opportunities and inspiring positive change

Mar. 16, 2026 at 6:02am

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The Yale Prison Education Initiative (YPEI), a program that offers college-level courses and degrees to incarcerated individuals in Connecticut, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The program, founded by Zelda Roland, has grown to include partnerships with the University of New Haven and offer associate's and bachelor's degrees at multiple state and federal prisons. Alumni like Kyle Gonzalez and Alpha Jalloh share how the program has transformed their lives, inspiring them to give back to their communities and pursue new goals like law school.

Why it matters

The YPEI program highlights the power of education to rehabilitate and empower incarcerated individuals, challenging the traditional punitive model of the criminal justice system. By providing access to higher education, the program aims to reduce recidivism rates and help participants develop the skills and mindset to positively contribute to their communities upon release. The program's expansion to women's federal prisons is also significant, as college degree programs for incarcerated women are extremely rare in the U.S.

The details

The YPEI program was launched in 2018 after founder Zelda Roland was inspired by the enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity of incarcerated students she taught at a Wesleyan University program. Starting with just 12 students at the McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, the program has grown to offer associate's and bachelor's degrees at three prisons in Connecticut, including the federal women's facilities in Danbury. The program is funded primarily through private donations and grants, including a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation in 2021 to expand the partnership with the University of New Haven. Alumni like Kyle Gonzalez and Alpha Jalloh have gone on to organize book and hygiene drives for fellow incarcerated individuals, demonstrating a commitment to giving back and inspiring positive change.

  • The YPEI program was launched in 2018.
  • The program is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2026.

The players

Zelda Roland

The founding director of the Yale Prison Education Initiative at Dwight Hall and the founding director of the University of New Haven Prison Education Program.

Alpha Jalloh

A junior at Yale University and an alumnus of the Yale Prison Education Initiative, who was incarcerated for 8 years and credits the program with transforming his life and inspiring him to pursue a law degree.

Kyle Gonzalez

An incarcerated individual who participated in the Yale Prison Education Initiative and has organized book and hygiene drives for fellow inmates, demonstrating a commitment to giving back and inspiring positive change.

Emme

The program coordinator for the Yale Prison Education Initiative, who is described as a community activist, leader, and friend who has done a great deal to support the incarcerated students in the program.

Justin

An incarcerated individual who inspired Kyle Gonzalez and others to organize a soap drive for a local homeless shelter, demonstrating the program's impact on inspiring participants to give back to their communities.

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What they’re saying

“I was in the cell with one of my friends. His name is Ricky, and his mother actually lives right across the street. I was telling him what I wanted to do with the extra books. He said that he actually knows those books are right across the street. His mother reached out to Lauren, and Lauren and I connected. We donated a couple of boxes of books. We were sending them from our own, you know, money from our commissary or whatever. And then we were just having conversations about what we could do more. And so it led into doing a soap drive, where we went around the prison, and we're asking people to donate a soap, and then we ran, well, not we, Lauren organized the entire soap drive for us, me and a bunch of people. We sent out a bunch of soaps over here, and then people at the store came here, and they packed them together with other things that were donated and brought by other members that are affiliated with Possible Futures, and they handed them out to the Ann house. It was about 100 packages. So it was a beautiful event.”

— Kyle Gonzalez

“It was a group of us, you know, having conversations, but it was one man in particular. His name is Justin, who was actually organizing his own soap drives by going around and asking people, literally like, 'Hey, do you want to donate a soap? I'm going to donate a bar of soap to a homeless shelter.' His mother experienced homelessness while he was incarcerated. And so if it was something that he was very, you know, close with in his heart, so it was his idea that I kind of brought to Lauren, and Lauren loved it. And so we just did that. But as far as being incarcerated and giving back, it's a way to show that there's more to us than just what it was that we did.”

— Kyle Gonzalez

“I think being like exposed to critical thinking, right in this kind of very specific way, where you understand your environment and you understand the things that led up to not your incarceration specifically, because it's not really always about you. It's about the mass incarceration that we see around the United States. So you understand, you know, the environments in a different way. You see how our path kind of led us here. And so once you're once we become aware of those things, then we want to break free from what it was that was holding us back, which is ignorance, right? We experienced it almost together.”

— Kyle Gonzalez

“Absolutely, waiting for them to come out.”

— Kyle Gonzalez

“Giving back. I like bringing people together so they can give back on a larger scale than just individually.”

— Kyle Gonzalez

What’s next

The judge in the case will decide on Tuesday whether or not to allow Walker Reed Quinn out on bail.

The takeaway

The Yale Prison Education Initiative has demonstrated the transformative power of education in rehabilitating incarcerated individuals and inspiring them to give back to their communities. By providing access to college-level courses and degrees, the program is challenging the traditional punitive model of the criminal justice system and proving that mission-driven, community-focused initiatives can thrive even in an era of corporate consolidation of the retail sector.