SOUTH BEND — Chris Foggie was in prison at the Westville Correctional Facility during the COVID-19 lockdown. Morale was low, he said, as outside visits and programs abruptly stopped and movement within the facility was limited.
The only thing that kept him going was his coursework through the Moreau College Initiative, a program where instructors at the University of Notre Dame and Holy Cross College teach classes at the prison near LaPorte.
“It was the only thing that kept us alive. School was our outlet,” said Foggie, who earned his associate’s degree through the program.
The Moreau program has conferred 101 associate’s and 29 bachelor’s degrees since 2013, but now, Notre Dame hopes to expand educational opportunities to even more incarcerated people in Indiana through its new Programs for Educations in Prisons.
NDPEP will bring together a handful of existing prison education programs under the umbrella of the university’s Center for Social Concerns, in addition to providing additional resources for research into mass incarceration and aid to NDPEP graduates reentering society.
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