Unique Ventura County Criminal Justice College Class Mixes Traditional and Incarcerated Students
May 6, 2025
The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program took place for the first time in a local juvenile justice facility.
We’re sitting in on a very different kind of college class taking place in an unusual setting. There are 20 students in a class which looks at the criminal justice system, and how it can be improved.
They’re all California Lutheran University students. But 11 of them travel to the Juvenile Justice Facility in Oxnard to attend the class. The other nine students live here because they are incarcerated.
"It's a new perspective on not only myself, but classmates, the individuals that I'm housed with, and the justice system in all...understanding the courts, victimization aspects, rehabilitation aspects," said ML, one of the incarcerated students in the program. (We're only using the initials of the incarcerated students because of their age.)
The class is part of the international Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, intended to create understanding and collaboration and help those who are incarcerated work towards a new start by furthering their education.
California Lutheran University Professor Schannae L. Lucas and Inside-Out Class student Carmen Martinez as the class is in session at the Ventura County Juvenile Justice facility in Oxnard.
