Cal State LA has a new campus. Located in Chino about 30 miles east of the main campus, it consists of a single one-story structure contained within a yard featuring a small lawn that provides a touch of color.

The campus does not call attention to itself, with its one-of-a-kind status lost in its modesty.

But it is certainly unique in that it is the first campus in the country dedicated solely to serving an incarcerated population. It is the place where Cal State LA’s Prison Graduation Initiative (PGI) program will guide students from the California Institution for Men (CIM) prison toward their bachelor’s degrees and teach them the necessary everyday skills they will need upon paroling back to society.

On Tuesday, May 27, Cal State LA, CIM, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the new CIM College Campus, which is located just outside one of CIM’s three yards.

“We at Cal State LA are in the business of transforming lives through higher education,” Cal State LA President Berenecea Johnson Eanes said. “This new facility for PGI’s bachelor’s degree program represents the strength of our ongoing partnership with CIM and CDCR. Cal State LA is in it for the long run. This is what we do.”

Said CIM Warden Eric Mejia, “The opening of this building marks the launch of one of the largest in-person bachelor’s degree programs in CDCR. This is an incredible step forward in our commitment to rehabilitation.”

CIM funded the new 17,500-square-foot campus, starting with the refurbishment of an abandoned building that had been used previously for parole hearings. Years of neglect led to holes in the floor and unintentional “sunroofs” throughout the dilapidated structure’s ceilings.

CIM reconfigured the 3,800-square-foot building to include three classrooms, tutorial spaces, and offices for PGI faculty and correctional officers. The reconstruction took nearly two years to complete.

“This college campus is more than a collection of rooms and materials,” said student Lenin Montenegro, 55. “It is a place where students like myself and the many more who will follow can come to deepen our understanding, expand our horizons, and get away from the distractions of incarceration. This is the place where the futures of many students will be built.”

Photo: Cal State LA President Berenecea Johnson Eanes meets with Eric Jones and other members of the first PGI cohort from the California Institution for Men at the new CIM College Campus on Tuesday, May 27. (Credit: J. Emilio Flores/Cal State LA)

The campus adheres to the CDCR’s new California Model for incarceration, which emphasizes safer communities through rehabilitation, education, and reentry.

“It’s a more humane, less punitive system,” said Bidhan Roy, PGI’s program director. “This space was created under those guidelines. One of the California Model’s principles is normalization. The classrooms try to duplicate non-prison environments to help students acclimate when they reenter society. This is the first step to normalization.”

CIM’s incoming first cohort will consist of 66 students who will work toward their Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies. It is the largest PGI cohort to date.

PGI was founded in 2016 as the first in-person bachelor’s degree completion program for California’s incarcerated students. The program has graduated over 50 students from three cohorts from the California State Prison, Los Angeles County in Lancaster. The graduates include students who were paroled and completed their coursework at Cal State LA.

In recent years, PGI has expanded to include CIM and the California Institution for Women, which is also located in Chino. PGI is also collaborating with a fourth institution that is expected to be the first in the state to fully integrate under the California Model.

The model is based on the successful Norwegian Model of rehabilitation. The California Model was founded, as listed by the CDCR, on the following pillars:

• Normalization: Aims to close the gap between life inside prison and life outside to make the transition easier once the students are released.

• Dynamic security: Promotes positive relationships between staff and incarcerated people through purposeful activities and professional, positive, and respectful communication.

• Peer mentorship: Trains incarcerated individuals to use their experiences to mentor and support their peers.

• Becoming a trauma-informed organization: CDCR and the California Correctional Health Care Services are committed to improving practices, policies, and culture by educating staff at all levels to recognize the impacts of trauma and ensure the physical and emotional safety of all staff and incarcerated individuals.

The California Model has one advantage over the Norwegian Model, according to Roy, who has made numerous visits to Norway to learn more about its rehabilitation practices.

“Norway does not have Cal State LA. Norway does not have B.A. programs,” Roy said during the ceremony. “There are things happening in California that are not happening in Norway. We should be proud to be part of that change.”

Photo: Prison Graduation Initiative Director Bidhan Roy addresses guests at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the CIM College Campus on Tuesday, May 27. (Credit: J. Emilio Flores/Cal State LA)

The past year has been an on-ramp year for Cal State LA and CIM as they prepared for the inaugural cohort. The university has been working with the CDCR to transfer eligible students to CIM from other institutions around the state, as well as from other yards in the CIM facilities.

About 40 percent of CIM’s first cohort are transfer students from other locations, according to Roy. Students become eligible for PGI when they earn their associate degrees upon completion of their general education requirements through distance learning from community colleges.

CIM’s first cohort includes 55-year-old Eric Jones, who from 2009 to 2024 earned 16 associate degrees from Palo Verde College and Coastline College. He transferred to CIM from Ironwood State Prison in Blythe in 2020.

“Once the announcement was made that the bachelor’s degree program was about to get started [at CIM], I became excited,” Jones said. “I knew all my hard work and patience was about to pay off.”

As PGI has grown, the number of students applying for the program from all over the state has also increased.

“We try to build a cohort as a spirit and as a collective,” Roy said. “We start with teambuilding, making sure people feel like they’re part of a group and that they provide support for each other.”

Roy says the teamwork aspect is instinctive to many students. He has witnessed, for example, younger students tutoring those in their late 60s and early 70s to navigate computers and learn programs such as Canvas.

Judging from the first three cohorts from Lancaster, Roy anticipates the biggest adjustment for CIM students might be relearning how they learn. Each student completed an associate degree through distance learning, and the classroom setting will be foreign to many of them.

“They have had isolated experiences in their education,” Roy said. “There’s a culture they need to learn: How do you ask questions? When is it appropriate to do this or that? What does it mean to do group work? These are things that we take for granted, but not all our students have had in-person learning.”

The soft skills the students pick up are part of the normalization process and are equally important as what they learn in their major. Upon release, parolees often struggle with everyday tasks such as ordering from a menu, using a smartphone, or even just riding in a car for the first time in decades.

“People who are institutionalized get used to routine and any shift in that routine is almost traumatic.” Roy said. “It’s a lot for some people. But they know they must adjust if they want to grow or try something new in terms of their development. It puts them in the right mindset when they leave prison, because at that point they have to change.”

At CIM, that change starts with a new campus, its rehabilitated building, and comfortable classrooms that allow students to focus.

“I can personally say that these facilities are very meaningful to me,” Montenegro said. “Having a dedicated place to further my studies and not having to contend with all the interruptions in the common rooms or the difficulties of studying in a converted kitchen… will go a long way to advance my education.”

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California State University, Los Angeles is the premier comprehensive public university in the heart of Los Angeles. Cal State LA is ranked number one in the United States for the upward mobility of its students. Cal State LA is dedicated to engagement, service, and the public good, offering nationally recognized programs in science, the arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education, and the humanities. Founded in 1947, the University serves more than 24,000 students and has more than 250,000 distinguished alumni.