UC Santa Cruz Students Visit Prisoners in Soledad
John Malkin
December 18, 2022
Exercises in Empathy brings students and community members into prisons for multilayered discussions that explore healing, responsibility and restorative justice. Megan McDrew is the program director and lead facilitator of Exercises in Empathy at Correctional Training Facility Soledad in collaboration with UC Santa Cruz.
McDrew moved to the area to teach sociology to prisoners at Correctional Training Facility Soledad and Salinas Valley State Prison through Hartnell College. She’s previously taught at Humboldt State, UC Merced and has been an instructor at UC Santa Cruz since 2017. The Sentinel recently spoke with Megan McDrew and UCSC student Jules Champion about visiting with prisoners at Soledad and the potential for transforming the justice system.
Breaking down barriers
Megan McDrew: I started bringing students into prison with me on tours and to have short discussions with my incarcerated students. Around 2018, I started bringing students in once a quarter to discuss a specific book with the incarcerated men. We’d almost always do “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson. We also discussed a book by Victor Rios; “Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys.” Over time, I’ve brought in about 100 students from UC Santa Cruz. Many have said it was the most powerful part of their learning experience on campus, if not their entire life. Over the last couple years, I’ve been bringing students in not only once a quarter, but once a week for eight weeks. Jules has been part of the program.
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