California has equipped incarcerated college students across its prison system with laptops, a major shift that is changing how community colleges deliver classes behind bars — including at facilities in Southern California.
Over the past three years, the state prison system has spent $23.2 million to provide 30,000 laptops to incarcerated students. Nearly half of those devices went to about 13,000 people enrolled in California community college courses while in prison.
The effort is helping move prison education away from the long-standing correspondence model, in which students received paper packets, completed assignments by hand and mailed work back to instructors. While some colleges still use mail-based courses, online instruction is becoming more common as laptops reach more students.
Supporters say the technology gives incarcerated students more timely access to assignments, feedback and instructors, while also building computer skills needed for jobs after release. Others caution that online courses cannot fully replace the value of in-person teaching, where students can interact directly with faculty and classmates.
Richard Moye, 44, an incarcerated student who has been in prison for 16 years, said technology skills are essential for people preparing to return to the workforce.
“The more we understand about today’s world, the better we’ll be equipped to get out into the workforce as things continue to change,” Moye said. “We don’t want to get left behind. … Tech literacy is of the utmost importance behind prison walls.”
The expansion of prison-based online learning follows a 2024 recommendation from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office, which urged improvements to Rising Scholars, the California Community Colleges program that serves incarcerated students. The office pointed to limited classroom space in prisons and suggested that more online courses could help colleges reach additional students. It also recommended giving priority to students working toward their first degree, rather than allowing people seeking second or third degrees to take limited seats.
Of California’s 116 community colleges, 104 now partner with prisons to offer courses or degree programs. Community college data show more than 21,000 courses were held in prisons during fall 2025. Twenty colleges offered in-person instruction, with faculty traveling to prisons to teach. The rest provided classes online or through correspondence, though mail-based courses are becoming less common, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
The system does not have a precise count of how many incarcerated students are taking online classes compared with traditional correspondence courses. Colleges may use different reporting labels for those courses, making statewide tracking inconsistent, the Chancellor’s Office said.
In-person prison classes face practical limits. Classroom space is often scarce because prison classrooms are also used for other programs and meetings. At times, classes are held in gyms or dining areas. Enrollment in a typical in-person course can range from 18 to 40 students, and many colleges enroll students on a first-come, first-served basis.
Orlando Sanchez Zavala, a policy analyst with the Legislative Analyst’s Office, said that can mean students already holding degrees may take seats from those still pursuing their first college credential. Prioritizing first-degree students, he said, could have the greatest effect on reducing recidivism.
Earning a degree in prison can expand job prospects after release and help people reintegrate. According to a state prison recidivism report, incarcerated people who earned an associate degree during the 2018-19 fiscal year had an 8.5% conviction rate in the three years after release. The overall conviction rate for people released that year was 41.9%.
For students, the path to a degree can be difficult regardless of course format.
Joseph Bruno Martinez, 40, said he had trouble getting into classes while housed at high-security prisons, where lockdowns could interrupt instruction across an entire institution.
Garret Eiferman, 56, who was formerly incarcerated and is now a graduate student at Cal State Northridge, said correctional officers were not always willing or able to support students trying to complete coursework. He said he had to build relationships with officers to gain access to classrooms after 7 p.m. and sometimes had to persuade staff to let classmates leave their housing units to attend class.
Eiferman said he also dealt with outdated textbooks, some with hard covers removed for safety reasons, little feedback on correspondence assignments, and the challenge of balancing school with prison work and other required programs. Although he did not take online-only courses while incarcerated, he said he understands why laptops could help students facing similar obstacles.
For Moye, who takes both online and in-person classes through Solano Community College at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, online coursework is valuable because it brings prison education closer to how colleges operate outside prison walls. Many students and instructors now use Canvas, the learning management system common across California’s higher education systems, to submit assignments, receive grades and communicate.
Isela Ocegueda, vice president of instruction at Coastline College, teaches online English to incarcerated students. She said using Canvas can make it easier for students to continue their education after release because they are already familiar with the same platform used on many campuses. At Coastline, about 80% of instruction is online.
Until 2023, Coastline taught prison courses through mail correspondence. The college now describes its model as “Canvas-supported correspondence.”
Ocegueda said the online format allows for more detailed feedback and more creative assignments. In one English course, she began the semester by asking students to write a journal entry introducing themselves and explaining how she could support them. For the final research paper, students can submit multiple drafts and receive edits much faster than through the mail.
“Imagine just trying to receive essays in the mail and then make your corrections and then send them back,” Ocegueda said. “That was really hard to do in the mail version of correspondence. … Canvas-supported correspondence allows more for that writing process to actually happen.”
Still, online learning in prison remains uneven. Wi-Fi access differs by facility, and incarcerated students may wait days for certain reading materials or research documents to be approved by prison librarians.
Students at Pelican Bay State Prison in Del Norte County and California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County have said they cannot access Canvas from their cells because of limited Wi-Fi. Students at Folsom State Prison and San Quentin Rehabilitation Center have reported stronger connections that allow them to complete coursework from their housing units.
A spokesperson for the state prison system said incarcerated people have Wi-Fi access in housing units at all but four California prisons. All prisons have Wi-Fi in education areas and classrooms, though the quality of the signal may vary.
Some incarcerated students pursuing bachelor’s degrees have also reported difficulty accessing research materials online and said they wished they could conduct basic internet searches for academic work.
Ben Brookeshire, an English professor at Solano College, said one of his biggest challenges is the lag time students face when trying to access digital research materials. Some documents available through research databases must first be reviewed by prison librarians before students can use them.
Despite the rise of online learning, many students and faculty continue to value in-person instruction.
Eiferman completed most of his prison coursework by mail through Palo Verde College and Coastline College between 2009 and 2019. During his incarceration, he earned an associate degree in arts, an associate degree in science and a business certificate. He was also working toward a U.S. history degree when he was paroled in 2020.
He said his interaction with professors during correspondence courses was limited, and detailed feedback was rare. That made the transition to university coursework more difficult after his release.
His first in-person college class came through Bakersfield College at Golden State Community Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in the southern San Joaquin Valley. The course was math, a subject he had long struggled with, but Eiferman said the classroom setting helped concepts click. He also found himself encouraging and helping other students stay enrolled.
Moye said in-person courses give students a clearer understanding of what instructors expect and allow for peer support, group work, tutoring and discussion.
Community college data show incarcerated students had a 77% success rate in internet-based and correspondence courses in spring 2025, compared with an 85% success rate in in-person classes. Success is defined as earning a C or better, or passing a course graded on a pass-fail basis. In in-person courses, incarcerated students performed 10 percentage points better than community college students overall.
“I’m a fan of in-person learning,” Moye said. “That’s my favorite style of learning, because to me, it resembles most what’s going on in society. If we’re trying to prepare incarcerated men and women for society, we have to have it look as much like society as possible.”
Brookeshire said he recognizes that online prison education will continue to grow, but he chooses to teach in person because he believes it is the best way to connect with students.
“I’m very passionate,” he said. “I really believe there’s magic in a classroom, and I really believe that face-to-face instruction is irreplaceable.”
Original source: CalMatters
