Derik Smith Archives - The Student Life

Tessa Hicks Peterson poses and smiles for the camera during a photo shoot.

By Macy Puckett and Ila Bell 813 Views California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, California Rehabilitation Center, cdcr, Claremont McKenna College, CMC, CRC, Crossroads, Derik Smith, Inside Out, InsideOUT Writers, jec, justice education center, kenneth butler, Los Angeles, los angeles area, Male Community Reentry Program, mcrp, napier fellow, norco prison, pathway to BA, Paula Gutierrez, Pitzer College, Starting Over Inc, tessa hicks peterson, The Reintegration Academy, UCLA

Following a year of uncertainty regarding the program’s future, the 5Cs’ Justice Education Center (JEC) appointed a new interim director, Tessa Hicks Peterson, last month. Peterson has since initiated plans to pilot multiple new partnership models next fall for Inside-Out, as the program navigates reconstruction following its partner institution’s, the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) — also known as Norco prison — closure in the fall.
Inside students currently participating in Pitzer’s Pathway-to-BA program are set to graduate on May 19 after fulfilling the 32-credit course requirement. They will then be relocated to other prisons in California, but they haven’t been told which facilities they’ll be transferred to, according to Peterson.