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Education Saves Lives: HOPE carries on at UW

Feb 23, 2016
HOPE Hoopla aut 2015
Raising awareness and finding allies towards prison reform during HOPE Hoopla. L-to-R:Vanessa Lim, Lia Musumeci, Taylor DeMotta, Dashni Amin, and Gavin White. Photo credit: May Lim.

Huskies for Opportunities in Prison Education (HOPE) is a UW student group devoted to promoting and increasing post-secondary prison education programs. Prison education has been shown to reduce recidivism rates and increase successful reintegration back into society after incarceration. We consider our activism to be a first step in reforming our country’s hyper-punitive criminal justice system into a more humane and rehabilitative model.

In the two years since HOPE was founded, our organization has collected over 2,000 textbooks for prisoners at the Monroe Correctional Complex, created the Bridges to HOPE Scholarship for local university students at risk of going down the foster care-to-prison pipeline, and has facilitated several annual advocacy events on the UW campus.

We hope you will join us in our upcoming events to show your support for increasing post-secondary prison education:

  • “I Cry Out”: Reclaiming Identities Behind Bars – Art Installation: First Floor Gallery in the School of Social Work (Feb 16-June 1). Community reception March 2, 4-6 p.m.
  • Post-Prison Panel Discussion/Film Screening (mid-May)
  • Prison Art Exhibit – Quad (May 18-19)

Please check out HOPE’s Facebook page for updates and more details on these events and more: www.facebook.com/UWHOPE