A note from the Special Projects editors: The following piece is a letter to the 5C community from Cohort 04 of Pitzer College’s Inside-Out Pathway-to-BA program. This program allows incarcerated individuals at Norco’s California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) to obtain a Pitzer education through a year-long accelerated Bachelor’s degree program. With this letter, the authors hope to share their voices and reflect on their experience in the program as the cohort prepares to graduate.
On May 20, 2024, Pitzer’s fourth cohort of incarcerated students embarked on their academic journey from behind the walls of the CRC in the city of Norco. As the third cohort was coming to a close, they welcomed ten new members from Cohort 04 into a loving community of inside and outside students. Our names are Cody, Dontè, Flow, Jeter, Marcus, Rich, Ryan B., Ryan C., Terry and Theo, and we will be graduating at the end of this semester with degrees in Organizational Studies through Pitzer’s Inside-Out program.
Over the course of our program, the prison walls that attempt to divide us only proved to be more porous than concrete — and, perhaps, more metaphoric than anything. Those of us on the inside built lasting relationships with one another, but we also forged meaningful connections with faculty and with students on the outside and across the 5Cs.
Together, we have contributed to a burgeoning community of colleagues and companions that transcends the boundaries between inside and outside; many of us intend to maintain and expand these connections that we cherish so dearly.
Marcus and Theo strive to keep us all connected with a robust student alumni network that they are building with outside students Ben Brady PO ’25 and Kaitlyn O’Connor PZ ’25.
Terry’s clothing brand, Wear My Pain, was already on campus on April 6 for Pitzer’s Storyteller’s Festival, and he is committed to partnering his brand with the Inside-Out program in order to raise funds for higher education programs in prison.
Dontè, Ryan C. and Ryan B. have been working with Pitzer Associate Professor of Organizational Studies Barbara Junisbai on a project called Practical Understanding of Reentry Education, also known as P.U.R.E., which will connect inside and outside communities through access to academic resources.
Rich plans to implement all that he has learned as an Organizational Studies major in order to create a mobile community resource center that will help youth from disenfranchised communities.
Jeter and Theo want to develop a proposal for an Inside-Out community center that will have a physical location on campus.
Lastly, Flow has forged the strongest connections between us, both inside and out, with the Wolf Pact, which he describes as “a symbol of culture creation, community care and expanded inclusivity.” Dozens of students and several faculty members, as a part of the “pack,” are unified under a shared identity characterized by camaraderie and strengthened through empathic relationship-building. Flow has declared, quite passionately, that the Wolf Pact is not exclusive; he wants it to continue on the inside and hopes that it will continue expanding on the outside, long after Cohort 04 has graduated.
This has truly been an incredible year, and we can’t believe that it is almost over. Since we began last summer, we have said goodbye to Cody, who went home in February. Though he is dearly missed, we are always thrilled to have one of our companions return to his community where he belongs and is needed. In just a few weeks, we will be bidding farewell to Ryan C. and Theo, both of whom will hopefully be walking on Pitzer’s campus during graduation. We are so excited for more of our cohort to be returning home, and we can’t wait to hear about the warm welcome they will receive from students and faculty across the 5Cs.
There are so many beloved people that we, as Cohort 04, would like to acknowledge for the roles that they played in our academic journey. We would like to thank students and professors across the 5Cs, Pitzer’s administration, the Inside-Out program, the Justice Education Center, the cohorts that preceded us and the cohorts that will follow in our path. We hope that they will sustain the enriching communities all of us have built, as well as the transformative relationships that breathe life into them.
Thank you for investing in us instead of in the walls that confine us. To the individuals who made this happen and who changed us in ways that we couldn’t imagine: We love you, we cherish you and we will never forget the joy, laughter and memories that we built together. We hope to see you soon so that we can continue this incredible work, together, on the outside.
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