Mitchell Hamline’s work to welcome the first-ever currently incarcerated students at an ABA-approved law school was featured in a story Tuesday evening on PBS NewsHour.<\/p>\n
The story, produced by Simeon Lancaster and part of reporter Fred de Sam Lazaro’s Agents For Change series and the NewsHour’s ongoing series Searching for Justice, features current students Maureen Onyelobi and Jeff Young – the first students ever allowed to pursue a juris doctor from behind bars, as announced<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n It’s a collective effort by the Prison to Law Pipeline,\u00a0<\/i>a program of\u00a0All Square<\/a> and the Legal Revolution<\/a>, as well as Mitchell Hamline. The effort aims to transform the law through initiatives that center racial equity, wellness, and the expertise of those most impacted by the law.<\/p>\n “I don’t know if I will be able to practice as a lawyer,” said Onyelobi, in the story. “But if you told me ten years ago I’d be going to law school, I would say that’s unlikely. So, there’s no telling what can happen years from now.”<\/p>\n “We want to make sure we’re bring in people that have remorse, that are actually going to use the law degree in a way that’s productive, both for them individually, but also for the justice system and for society overall,” added Mitchell Hamline President and Dean Anthony Niedwiecki.<\/p>\n