Our Vision

We see past the present to a post-carceral society achieved through intentional educational opportunities grounded in antiracism and trauma-informed practices.

Our Mission

• Offer high-quality liberal arts education to students in carceral institutions in Western North Carolina
• Collaborate with community partners in developing resources to ensure those students’ educational success post-release
• Design and deliver educational opportunities for children and families of justice-involved individuals
• Advocate for education-related reform in criminal justice

April 2023 Newsletter

A Note From the New Executive Director

Professor Leslee Johnson

Spring 2023

“No one deserves to be defined by their worst moment,” said Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy and founder of The Equal Justice Initiative.  I heard him say this in a packed out Kimmel Arena, UNCA, in April of 2019. Terrible moments of my own making made my stomach lurch as I imagined my life’s being reduced to any one of them. A couple months later, I found myself teaching HUM124 in a small room at Avery Mitchell Correctional Institution, asking fifteen men about their theory of human nature, and their answers blew my mind. Our conversations that summer transformed the way I felt and thought about humanities, higher education, justice, time, human nature and my own life and work. 

Now, four years after Stevenson’s words propelled me into this work, I am honored to assume the responsibilities of Director of UNCA’s Prison Ed Program, after the departure of Patrick Bahls, whose hard work and dedication carried UNCA’s PEP since July 2020.  Under Patrick’s leadership, the program evolved beyond the original model, and he began the process of re-visioning the next iteration of course offerings by building alliances with other institutions engaged in the work of higher education in prison. I am grateful for the groundwork he laid, the relationships he cultivated, and for his belief in and commitment to this work. As I step into this role, I too center my efforts on discerning how UNCA can build relationships and work with partners and students “on the inside” to open doors and clear pathways for incarcerated individuals to enjoy the freedom and power higher education bestows: thinking, learning, creating in a community of colleagues full of future opportunities.

This semester (Spring 2023) we delivered one of the final courses of the original curriculum to Mr. Jason Kitchen at AMCI, CSCI185 – Intro to Computer Programming for the Web. Dr. Sarah Van Wart overcame significant technical limitations to deliver this content on the inside and create an equitable and academically challenging experience for Mr. Kitchen, whose goals are to pursue programming and New Media as his major and future career. Currently, we are in conversation with administrators at AMCI to offer a class out of the original curriculum this summer, ACCT 215: Principles of Accounting I, or MGMT 366: Entrepreneurship. We hope to open this class up and recruit students at AMCI who would find value in this coursework. 

As we necessarily evolve into a new iteration of the program, we’re beginning to explore new partnerships with other carceral institutions in our geographic area. Conversations with stakeholders on the inside, conversations with folks at Warren Wilson and AB Tech who are engaged in this work as well, and conversations with formerly incarcerated colleagues are proving instrumental in discerning needs, what works, and what the possibilities are for UNCA’s continued engagement in this important justice work. 

In addition to providing college courses in prisons, exploring how UNCA can address the needs of justice-involved individuals in the process of reentry presents another area of crucial work in our community. As we take up the fight to create real pathways to higher education and success for everyone, UNCA’s PEP has an opening to work on dismantling the barriers that prevent justice-involved people from gaining college acceptance, and for creating a welcoming campus where opportunities to move far beyond any worst moment exist for all. 

I’m grateful to Micah Hayes, a graduate of UNCA’s PEP and soon-to-be  graduate Mass Communications major of UNCA,  for his continued work, support, knowledge and insight. As the program’s communications liaison, he has been a constant in this transition, guiding me up a steep learning curve. I’m also grateful to Provost Holt, Steve Birkhofer and Charlotte Smith for their guidance and support. 

Thank you for reading; I’ll continue to update our campus community on our efforts to extend the freedom and power of higher education to the places where it arguably matters most. 

Sincere and warm regards,

Leslee Johnson, Executive Director

Learn More

The UNC Asheville Prison Education Program is funded through the Laughing Gull Foundation