Caption: Books from the OBB Library collection on their way to prisons around the state “Freedom begins with a book.” — Reginald Dwayne Betts, a formerly incarcerated Yale-educated lawyer, poet and founder of Freedom Reads Peter …
CHEP
New enrichment classes build educational momentum
“We make a choice each moment that affects the rest of our lives and the lives of everyone around us. The decision is about whether we are the situation we are in — or if …
UW CHEP director’s letter
Caption: Students from OBB’s English 100 course at Oakhill, spring 2022 In May, Odyssey Beyond Bars (OBB) concluded an incredible semester of growth in which we offered courses in three new prisons, in addition to …
UW CHEP director’s letter
Odyssey Beyond Bars (OBB) is now operating in four prisons across the state, and as we and other prison-based programs expand, we often encounter the same question from our students as they contemplate their academic …
Inside-Out program changing perspectives at Taycheedah women’s prison
“This experience has enabled me to look outside the box that I’ve kept myself securely in for so long. I am not just a number or a lost cause like society has labeled me. I …
Odyssey Beyond Bars returns in-person at Oakhill
“You’re only remembered by what you did in your time on earth, and I want to be remembered as a valiant man that despite his mistakes and hardships took a horrific situation and turned it …
Director’s letter
We enter fall and the holidays with keen excitement, thankful to be back to in-person teaching and meeting classrooms full of new students. Some programs suspended during the pandemic are resuming, like UW–Parkside’s Shakespeare Prison …
Odyssey Beyond Bars alum advocating for better futures
“What English 100 did for me, I want to do for others. I blossomed in that class. I want others to experience that.” —Dominee Meek, Odyssey Beyond Bars alum (fall 2019) Dominee was in the …
Multicultural literature course hosts family, friends for online graduation
“Reading and reflecting on writings at this magnitude has allowed us to respond and be heard, to be a part of the community […] and to be more than just numbers in a system or …
Odyssey Beyond Bars expands!
“In finding yourself, you discover an array of beauty within. You discover that you actually are intelligent, when your teachers and classmates had written you off as dumb because you didn’t apply yourself. Now you’ve …