Eighteen women incarcerated at Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois, earned bachelor's degrees from Northwestern University this month, becoming the first group of incarcerated women in the United States to receive bachelor's degrees from a top-10 university. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi delivered the commencement address inside an Illinois correctional facility on Friday, marking a milestone for the Northwestern Prison Education Program's first graduating class of women.
The degree count reported by university officials was 18, according to The Chicago Crusader, though ABC7 Chicago reported that 19 incarcerated women would receive the bachelor's degrees. Either way, Northwestern University said this is the first group of women to graduate from a top-10 university while incarcerated, per ABC7's reporting. Northwestern's bachelor's program is administered through its School of Professional Studies.
Why Pelosi Was Chosen to Speak
NPEP Founding Director Jennifer Lackey selected Pelosi specifically because of her own historic distinction as the first female U.S. House Speaker, seeing it as a fitting parallel for the first cohort of incarcerated women earning degrees from a top-10 university, according to Northwestern Now. Pelosi served as Speaker of the House in 2007 and again in 2019. The ceremony took place inside the Illinois correctional facility, ABC7 reported, with the graduation framed as both an academic and symbolic breakthrough for women behind bars.
This is not NPEP's first commencement. The program previously conferred bachelor's degrees to two cohorts of incarcerated men, including 16 graduates at Stateville Correctional Center in November 2023 and 20 graduates at Sheridan Correctional Center in April, according to The Daily Northwestern. Those male cohorts were also the first incarcerated students in the country to earn degrees from a top-10 university, the outlet reported. ABC7 noted that NPEP has now graduated two groups of incarcerated men in addition to this first class of women.
Program Growth at Logan and Beyond
NPEP expanded its admissions at Logan Correctional Center to admit a second cohort of women in early 2026, bringing the total number of female students and alumni at the Lincoln facility to 45, per the Northwestern Prison Education Program. ABC7 reported that the program currently serves 68 students enrolled at Logan Correctional Center and Sheridan Correctional Center combined, with total enrollment across all NPEP sites reaching up to 100 students. Logan Correctional Center is a multilevel state facility for women, while Sheridan Correctional Center is a multilevel state prison for men, according to ABC7's reporting.
NPEP has partnered with Oakton College and the Illinois Department of Corrections since 2018 to provide college-level coursework before students matriculate into Northwestern, ABC7 reported. Philosophy professor Jennifer Lackey founded NPEP that year and secured a $1 million Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant in 2020 to establish the state's first degree-granting liberal arts curriculum inside a women's facility, according to Forensic. After earning their bachelor's degrees, NPEP graduates often remain with the program as teaching assistants and fellows, mentoring and tutoring incoming students, according to BestColleges. Graduates have also helped create student publications like the Northwestern Insider magazine.
A Statewide Gap Between Demand and Access
Lackey has said recidivism rates drop dramatically when people receive post-secondary education while incarcerated, and that higher degrees are associated with even lower recidivism, according to ABC7. Research on post-secondary prison education has found recidivism reductions of up to 43%.
Yet the scale of NPEP's success sits against a much larger statewide shortfall. Illinois Department of Corrections data published in September revealed that out of roughly 30,000 incarcerated individuals statewide, approximately 2,600 are enrolled in higher education while another 3,700 remain on waitlists, according to the College of Education at Illinois.
Pell Grant access for incarcerated students returned July 1, 2023, after the 1994 ban, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.
