SCHOOL DAZE: How COVID Impacts Education Prison Literacy Program Adapts During COVID Lockdowns
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(This is the second in a series of articles produced in partnership with journalists from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle in collaboration with the nonprofit Solutions Journalism Network.)
By ANNAKAI HAYAKAWA GESHLIDER
Part II
Part I introduced the Lit Club program. Part II, below, covers the impact of the recent COVID outbreak at the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) on the Lit Club, as well as background on the Asian Prisoner Support Committee’s ROOTS program.
In August 2020, the Oakland-based Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC) kicked off its Lit Club program at three women’s prisons in California. In the Lit Club, nine partner pairs each with one person in prison and one APSC volunteer choose from a list of books to read together, and then discuss the book via email.
SCHOOL DAZE: How COVID Impacts Education Prison Literature Club Adapts During COVID Lockdowns
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The last graduation ceremony of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee’s ROOTS program at San Quentin, on June 9, 2019. (Hien Nguyen)
(This is the second in a series of articles produced in partnership with journalists from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle in collaboration with the nonprofit Solutions Journalism Network.)
By ANNAKAI HAYAKAWA GESHLIDER
Part I
How can education in prisons continue when faced with the limitations of the COVID-19 lockdown?
For the past five years, the Oakland-based Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC) taught ethnic studies at San Quentin prison in Marin County. The weekly program was called ROOTS short for “Restoring Our Original True Selves.”