The Guardian
In a historic achievement, Benard McKinley, 39, was accepted to Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago
Since leaving prison in December 2023, Benard McKinley, 39, has been busy preparing for huge next steps.
Between working and visits from friends and family, McKinley is getting ready for his first year of study at the prestigious Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, a historic achievement.
“Just months ago, I was still behind prison bars, and not knowing exactly how the future of going to law school would turn out. So to be home and know I’m going to law school … is an amazing feeling,” McKinley told the Guardian.
McKinley is the first person from Northwestern University’s Prison Education Program (NPEP) to be accepted into any law school, including Northwestern’s, which boasts a 4% acceptance rate.
The NPEP scheme grants bachelor’s degrees, among just a handful of programs in the US that offer a collage-level education to incarcerated people.
McKinley, who served 22 and a half years in prison, finished his bachelor’s degree last year and applied for a place at the prestigious law school, all while incarcerated at the Stateville correctional center in northern Illinois.
McKinley and his classmates were the inaugural class of NPEP, one of four cohorts with 20 incarcerated students in the program overall.
Northwestern has stated that graduates in McKinley’s class are the first incarcerated students to receive a bachelor’s degree from a top 10 US university, as measured by rankings from US News & World report.
McKinley said he had always wanted to go to college. But the 39-year old’s mainstream education stopped abruptly when he received a criminal sentence while still a teenager.
“I was already passionate about trying to go to college, I just didn’t know how or when that would happen,” he said.
McKinley was sentenced when he was 19 to nearly 100 years in prison after being convicted of a gang-related murder.
While incarcerated, he began studying the law with the aim of appealing his case as well as helping others serving time alongside him with their legal problems.
He first obtained his GED and paralegal diploma behind bars and was eager to continue his education. McKinley applied and was accepted into the highly competitive NPEP program, a rare opportunity to get a bachelor’s degree while incarcerated. In 2023, out of 400 people who applied, only 40 were accepted.
Read more
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/11/northwestern-prison-education-program-law-school
