As we find ourselves in the midst of another pandemic-impacted semester, I am relieved to report that overall COVID cases at the prison have dropped. Despite recurring lockdowns and staff shortage-related interruptions at the prison, UPEP programming is going strong; we are engaging coursework in Timpanogos, Promontory, Olympus, Oquirrh, and Uinta.

We hope this newsletter finds you and your loved ones in good health—physical, mental, and spiritual. Here at UPEP, we have continued our work of providing higher education to people incarcerated in Utah State prisons. Amidst racial, economic, and political unrest and a global health pandemic we have recommitted ourselves to ensuring that incarcerated people are central to the conversation of social transformation.

At the request of the Utah Prison Education Program (UPEP) students, Erin Castro invited me to provide a lecture on student veterans in higher education and our U Vets. I immediately accepted because I enjoy serving others, and this was also an opportunity to serve some of my brothers in arms who were incarcerated.

We’d like to warmly welcome Dionna Morton as UPEP’s new Re-Entry Liaison! In this role, Dionna will assist the project in developing more robust post-incarceration supports and infrastructure. We sat down with Dionna to ask a few questions about the importance of education and re-entry support.

A list of events from 2020.