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Meko Lincoln grew up in south Providence in a neighborhood steeped in poverty, drugs, and violence. Just months after he was born, his father was incarcerated for murder, and his only contact with him was occasional visits to the prison. His mother struggled to raise four boys on her own, and when Lincoln was 12 years old, he started using drugs. Two years later, he was charged with possession of crack cocaine, landing him in a juvenile correctional facility. By the time he was 21, he began serving the first of 16 prison terms for robbery, assault, and possession – amounting to a total of 17 years behind bars.

While he was incarcerated, Lincoln recognized that education would be his path to a better life once he was released. He enrolled in the Prison Correspondence Program from Roger William University’s Extension School (formerly University College) and earned a Case Management Certificate — an achievement that later unlocked the door to additional academic accomplishments at RWU, including an Associate of Science and Bachelor’s in General Studies in Social Science. In January 2025, at the age of 52, Lincoln will be awarded a Master of Arts in Community Development from the Extension School ( RWU EXT).

“The support that I’m getting is enormous,” Lincoln said about the programs that have made it possible for him to become a first-generation college graduate. “In my early twenties, I didn’t have any direction in life – no goals, no focus, and no one to guide me. Now, I have professors who are teaching me what it means to participate in society. They have given me direction.”

Launched in 2019, the Prison Correspondence Program – a collaboration with the nonprofit Reentry Campus Program – provides technology to justice-involved individuals to complete coursework for professional certificates in case management and criminal justice through RWU EXT. The program is one of several initiatives of the Extension School’s growing leadership in providing access to higher education for the justice-impacted community. 

For Lincoln, the experience opened the door to a new career. Today, he is the men’s program director at Amos House, a nonprofit social services agency that provides housing and reentry support for formerly incarcerated individuals and those struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues. He was paroled there himself, and, shortly after was hired as a custodian, promoted to case manager, and then promoted again to his current position.

“When I was introduced to the Prison Correspondence Program and later enrolled at ɫ����̳, I thought it was a good idea to embark on this career path and use my lived experience to help other people pull through,” Lincoln said. “Some individuals do not value themselves, and I was one of them. I can identify with what they’re going through, and I help them try to realize their worth.”

In addition to his academic credentials, Lincoln is a State-Certified Peer Recovery Specialist, Certified Community Health Worker, and Licensed Chemical Dependency Professional. In these capacities, he works with individuals, but he is also deeply committed to affecting change more widely, by “breaking down barriers and repairing communities,” as a member of the state of Rhode Island’s Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee and Criminal Justice Policy Board.

Decades-old Partnership Brings Education Inside the Walls

ɫ����̳ history of delivering educational programming to justice-involved individuals in partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC) dates back nearly five decades.

In 1975, Roger Williams College received a grant from the U.S. Office of Education to expand “a successful two-year effort to increase access to continuing education and community services for the Rhode Island offender/ex-offender populations,” stated an article in the campus newspaper, The Quill, in October 1975. “For the past two years, the Special Projects staff has been engaged in constructing effective institutional change within the Adult Correctional Institutions, providing individualized college-level learning activities through which a select group of inmates and ex-offenders could work toward their B.A. degree.”

Today, RWU EXT continues to deliver post-secondary education to the incarcerated community, and the breadth and reach of these programs are significantly expanding courtesy of a $5 million, three-year contract the RIDOC recently awarded the school.

“ɫ����̳ has experience in being our partner behind the walls and [in] providing opportunities for the incarcerated population, so they understand our needs,” said RIDOC Director Wayne Salisbury, Jr. ’02, who earned his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice at RWU. “The folks [who] are involved have taken it on as a life’s mission to make a difference.”

Expanding the Program’s Reach

RWU EXT’s Prison Education Program brings faculty into three of the RIDOC’s six facilities, which serve a total population of 2,422. Students in the John Moran Medium Security Facility, Maximum Security Facility, and Gloria McDonald Women’s Facility can take courses leading to a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Psychology. This degree program was chosen for its versatility as the foundation for a wide range of careers, from case management, substance abuse counseling, and social work to market research, sales, and more. 

This year, RWU EXT received accreditation from the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) which approved all six RIDOC facilities as licensed RWU educational facilities. As of the Fall 2024 semester, RWU faculty members are now teaching 12 courses behind the walls, on such topics as psychology, academic writing, criminology, and math. 

Selby Conrad, Associate Professor of Psychology at RWU, was one of the first faculty members to participate in the program and has taught Positive Psychology, Counseling Theories and Skills, and Applied Research over the past three semesters. 

She said that her students take their courses very seriously, are engaged in class discussions, and do their readings diligently. “This is a population that may have had challenging interactions with the education system and now they are choosing to come back to it,” she said. “The openness and willingness to learn is amazing.”

RWU EXT is also aiming to broaden its reach to RIDOC’s other facilities through remote-learning technology.

While some students have limited access to technology – including JSTOR, a digital library, and tablets for a coding class – advancing technological capabilities is a priority to Salisbury. “Part of the plan going forward is to … broadcast from one place and have [students in] five different buildings in the same classroom at the same time,” he said. Salisbury added that ultimately, it will prepare incarcerated individuals for life outside of prison by developing the skills to secure employment, including digital literacy.

The Prison Education Program will also roll out additional degree and certificate programs as well as certifications for trades, such as electrical technicians, plumbers, and food service managers later this year. 

The Ripple Effect

Numerous studies reveal that educational programming in prisons has a powerful impact on changing lives and reducing recidivism.

“It has a significant impact on preparing them to return to society,” Salisbury explained. “It’s important to offer them the opportunities that they may or may not have been given prior to being incarcerated so that we set them up for success.”

Salisbury recalls many individuals who are now leading productive lives. One person received a full scholarship to Harvard University to pursue a Ph.D. Another is working toward his master’s degree. Many others are running successful businesses — trucking, landscaping, and construction companies with multimillion-dollar contracts. “It’s incredible what they’ve been able to do,” he said.

After serving time – sometimes sentences of a decade or two – newly released individuals are thrown into a world that looks very different from the one they knew before. Facilitating that transition can mean the difference in their success in transcending past indiscretions and beginning life anew.

Pivot the Hustle is a 16-week program that prepares incarcerated individuals who will soon be up for parole for life beyond the walls. Since its launch in 2015, 142 students have graduated from the program, which offers a series of life-skills and career-readiness courses

These educational and reentry initiatives are also influential in breaking cycles that have passed through generations. Since his release, Meko Lincoln married and welcomed two children to his family, which also includes a daughter and three grandchildren. His 3-year-old son, now in preschool, accompanied Lincoln to the podium when he was awarded his associate degree.

“Instead of coming to visit me in prison, I want this to be normal practice for him, contributing to society and being a person of value,” Lincoln said. “This is the precipice upon which the chains are broken. My father was incarcerated, then I found myself incarcerated. The chain had to be broken.”

Navigating Life from the Inside Out

In addition to providing educational programming, RWU offers incarcerated individuals pro-bono legal counsel through its .

Though many need assistance in dealing with divorce, child custody, and public benefits, for example, incarcerated individuals, who have a legal right to counsel for criminal cases, do not have the same right for their civil legal needs. 

“There was no access to civil legal assistance for prisoners in Rhode Island until ɫ����̳ law school opened its Civil Legal Clinic” in 2014, explained Suzanne Harrington-Steppen, Co-Director of ɫ����̳ Civil Legal Clinic, Clinical Professor of Law, and Associate Director of .

RWU attorneys and law students have since been providing such services to individuals in ACI’s  facilities. Two to three attorneys and a handful of law students visit the prison biweekly to answer questions, conduct intakes, and assist with a variety of civil legal matters.

“The value to the clients we serve in having someone listen to their issues, treat them respectfully, and try to be helpful cannot be overestimated,” said Eliza Vorenberg, Co-Director of the Civil Rights Clinic, Clinical Professor of Law, Director of Pro Bono & Community Partnerships. “We believe that the opportunity to be heard and to learn about their rights and how they can enforce those rights is empowering to them.”

To date, the clinic has served approximately 300 individuals and provided 3,000 pro bono hours of legal counsel. More than 50 law students have participated in the clinic.

“This is critically important not only for the communities we serve but for our law students who learn about legal practice and the desperate need for pro bono legal services,” Vorenberg said. 

Guardians of Civil Rights

More recently, ɫ����̳ law school opened the Prisoner’s Rights Clinic, the brainchild of Jared Goldstein, Professor of Law, who serves as the clinic’s director. 

“I was very excited with the idea that I could turn my interest in working on behalf of incarcerated people into a clinic where students would do the work under my supervision while helping people who really need it,” Goldstein said. 

Among the 10 cases the clinic is currently handling is the suit filed on behalf of Wolf Pawochawog-Mequinosh, a Native American man who is seeking the right to wear a headband as a symbol of religious expression. 

The suit was filed in January 2024 by the Prisoner’s Rights Clinic and the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Attorney General’s Office responded almost immediately, agreeing to let Pawochawog-Mequinosh wear a headband while the case was sorted out. “It’s a constitutionally protected right. Even incarcerated people are entitled to practice their religion and the state can only deny it if they have a really compelling reason.”

Goldstein hopes that the case inspires the development of a formalized process through which prisoners can submit requests for consideration of religious items. 

Other suits the clinic is currently working on include allegations of excessive force, neglect of medical needs, and denial of mental health treatment.

As the only law school in the state, Goldstein said RWU Law school is filling a critical gap for work that “nobody else is doing.”

“There is such a need because there are people who are bringing cases that have real merit and they just don’t have a lawyer,” he said. “Our mission as a law school is to train students while working for social justice. We’re doing both in the clinic – working to make sure that the laws are enforced and that our students are educated by being involved in real-world practice.”