The Center for Justice (CFJ) at UCLA works to make higher education and the arts accessible to women and young people who are currently and formerly incarcerated, and to bring UCLA faculty and students to learn alongside them, challenging bias, discrimination, and systemic injustice through collaborative learning experiences.

The CFJ emerged from The UCLA Prison Education Program — which has offered post-secondary education and the arts in prisons with women and youth for nearly a decade. Beginning in 2015, after women incarcerated at the California Institute for Women (CIW) wrote over 139 letters requesting a “Center for Incarceration Studies,” we have provided college courses, lectures and workshops to cultivate critical thinking skills and innovative approaches to justice. Since then, UCLA’s Prison Education Program has provided courses in seven carceral facilities in southern California.

As part of this program, a 12-week Hip Hop Theater course will be taught on premises at the Geffen Playhouse in fall 2024 — to workshop and stage a play adapted by incarcerated women.

For information about auditions or registering for the class, email: . You can also visit our website: https://prisoneduprogram.ucla.edu/