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An unlikely friendship changed their lives
Charlotte West
January 17, 2025
A biweekly newsletter about the intersection of higher education and criminal justice. Written by Open Campus national reporter Charlotte West.
Short on time? Here are the highlights:
This week, we’re sharing the story of Noa Offman and Colie “Shaka” Long, two individuals who likely would have never met were it not for a prison education program. This story was copublished with Teen Vogue.
Kunlyna “K” Tauch describes returning to prison just two months after he was released – to graduate.
The U.S. Department of Education has released a new factsheet that provides general information and instructions on how incarcerated students and student loan borrowers can contact the Office of Correctional Education and the Ombudsman Office by mail.
ICYMI: An Indigenous literature class at an Oregon prison helps incarcerated women explore identity and find healing through Tommy Orange’s novel about urban Native Americans.
The ripple effects of prison education programs
Colie “Shaka” Long and Noa Offman. Credit: Georgetown Prisons and Justice Initiative
This story was copublished with Teen Vogue.
Noa Offman had it all planned out: She would major in biology at Georgetown University, go to medical school, and become a doctor. But a chance encounter in a theology class she took her first semester of college changed everything. Her professor invited Colie “Shaka” Long to join the class as a guest speaker.
Long, who was on a Zoom call from the D.C. Jail, told the class about being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole as a teenager, his experience with solitary confinement and how he became a mentor for young men in prison.
“He was warm, he was brilliant, and he was somebody that I wanted to continue to learn from,” she recalls. “I walked away from that conversation wondering who prisons are protecting me from.”
The next day, Offman went to the registrar’s office and changed her major from biology to justice and peace studies. She wanted to understand the root causes of incarceration, the lived experiences of those behind bars, and how she could make a difference.
Offman’s experience is just one example of the ripple effects that prison education programs can have on college campuses. When college students engage directly with the criminal justice system and have direct interaction with those impacted by incarceration, these programs can challenge preconceptions, influence career paths, and inspire activism.
Read the rest of the story.
‘Two months after release, I returned to prison — to graduate.’
The third cohort of California State University Los Angeles’ Prison Graduation Initiative at their graduation in December 2025. (Credit: J. Emilio Flores/Cal State LA)
Kunlyna “K” Tauch, who was released from Cal State LA in October 2024, shares why he returned to prison to graduate in this first-person essay.
While I had always imagined that my friends and family would come to prison to watch me walk across the stage, I never thought that I would be the one coming back to prison to graduate.
When I started working on my bachelor’s degree behind bars, I assumed I’d be wearing my cap and gown over prison blues. Instead, two months ago, the impossible happened: On October 2nd, 2024, the Honorable Judge Daniel J. Lowenthal reduced the sentence I received as a teenager – 50 years to life – to 16 years flat and time served. A new law that went into effect in January 2024 allows judges more discretion in resentencing.
On the day of the decision, I got my clothes, changed, met my family at the gate, and bussed straight to USC campus to speak on a panel answering questions from law students about the parole board process. Heidi, my lawyer who teaches there as a professor, had arranged it. On the drive, I dealt with motion sickness, answered numerous phone calls, and couldn’t eat because I felt ill. Life on the outside was fast, and it hasn’t slowed down since that day.
For months before my release, graduation had been the farthest thing from my mind. Between preparing for my resentencing hearing, working on my senior thesis, and applying to graduate school, I was consumed by planning for freedom – something I had not yet experienced as an adult since I’d been incarcerated at age 18.
Read the rest of K’s story.
Let’s connect
Please connect if you have story ideas or just want to share your experience with prison education programs as a student or educator. You can always reach me at [email protected] or on Bluesky, LinkedIn, or Instagram. To reach me via snail mail, you can write to: Open Campus, 2460 17th Avenue #1015, Santa Cruz, CA 95062.
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