Less than three years after the Northwestern Prison Education Program’s inaugural class graduated in November 2023, a second cohort of incarcerated students received their bachelor’s degrees from Northwestern on Monday morning.
The graduates joined the 2023 cohort as the only people in the U.S. to receive a top 10 university degree while incarcerated.
“There is something uniquely powerful about being second,” NPEP Director Jennifer Lackey said during her remarks. “The first cohort carries the weight of beginning … but a second cohort carries something different, and in many ways, more demanding. You took what NPEP was and helped it become what it is today.”
Founded in 2018, NPEP provides incarcerated people with the opportunity to receive a bachelor’s degree. Between Sheridan Correctional Center in Sheridan, Illinois, and Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois, around 100 students are enrolled in the program.
The 20 graduating students received a Bachelor of Science in General Studies with an undergraduate major in social sciences. Two additional students had previously received their degrees in June 2025 and were also honored at the ceremony.
Throughout the ceremony at Sheridan Correctional Center, the graduates and NPEP community members reflected on the change made possible by the program.
“I started this journey with a sixth grade education, and here I am,” NPEP graduate Edmond Duffin said in his remarks at the ceremony. “I’m what it looks like when competence and capability meets an opportunity.”
Human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson delivered the commencement address. Stevenson is also an author and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization based in Alabama.
In his address, Stevenson discussed his own experience with access to education. He said for part of his childhood, he attended a segregated school and was raised by adults who had been denied a full public education because there were no high schools for Black people in their county.
Stevenson went on to graduate from college and attend Harvard Law School. He said to show her support as he worked his way through his schooling, his grandmother would tightly squeeze him when they hugged and later ask if he still felt her embrace. It was her way of making sure he knew she was always with him, he said.
“When people fall down, people lose their way, when people are struggling, when people are incarcerated, people are being overwhelmed by all kinds of challenges — all of us have the capacity to get close enough to them and wrap our arms around them and affirm their humanity and their dignity,” Stevenson said in his speech. “I believe these graduates are manifestations of someone’s choice to affirm their humanity and their dignity.”
Stevenson also said the NPEP graduates are “singing a new song that America needs to hear” in an era of “politics of fear and anger.”
Other speakers at the ceremony included interim President Henry Bienen, Provost Kathleen Hagerty, incoming Provost Erik Luijten, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.
Each graduate made a short speech as they crossed the stage, with common themes of religion, family and the transformative power of education. Many also praised Lackey and thanked her for advocating for them and their education.
“Education became a lens, sharpening my perception,” NPEP graduate Yaphet Davis said as part of his remarks.
Communication Prof. D. Soyini Madison teaches poetry, performance of poetry and women’s literature classes through NPEP.
She said many graduates previously took her classes and told her that they used what they learned from her, including metaphors and certain sentence structures, in their speeches.
“They have become family to me because I’ve been here for so long,” Madison said. “It’s one of the most valuable teaching experiences because it’s as though whenever I come in to teach my class, they are always ready. They are always so excited. It’s like they’ve been waiting for it all week, and that’s a different experience.”
Thomas Hurley contributed reporting.
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