Hi friends and family,

In the wake of severe higher education cuts, Stanford has completely eliminated its funding for the Stanford Jail and Prison Education Project (SJPEP)—an organization very close to my heart. I’ve taught with SJPEP for the past five years and I'm in my third year of co-leading it. It has been the most meaningful part of my Stanford experience and I’ve witnessed firsthand—class after class—the difference it makes in the lives of our students. While I detest incarceration as a system, I remain committed to bringing education, care, levity and creativity into carceral spaces for as long as they endure.

To help keep this work alive, I’m running a half marathon to fundraise for SJPEP. I'll be training for the next 17 weeks and racing in January. Over the course of this period, I'll be running nearly 180 miles. My goal is to raise $2,000, and any contribution—big or small—will directly support our students.

Jails were never designed for long-term stays. They lack the basics: educational opportunities, outdoor spaces, adequate healthcare provisions, disability accommodations and other supports necessary to sustain survival. Yet, in California, tens of thousands of people are spending years—sometimes a decade or more—in county jails. Case in point: the vast majority of our SJPEP students have already been incarcerated in jail for six years or longer.

Since 2011, SJPEP has reached more than 600 incarcerated students—beginning at San Quentin Prison and now primarily at San Francisco County Jails 2 & 3 and the Maple Street Correctional Center. SJPEP has also provided positions for almost 200 graduate student volunteer instructors. Each quarter, up to 40 of us from more than 30 academic disciplines come together, bringing our varied teaching backgrounds into the jail classroom. The courses we create are by nature unique and innovative because they are custom-designed each term by multidisciplinary instructor teams. SJPEP instructors alternate leading classes each week and, when not teaching, we learn alongside our students. The model cultivates a shared community and a spirit of co-creation, as courses are built in real time through reciprocal teaching and learning.

Your contribution to SJPEP will go toward class materials, books, the production and printing of our student literary magazine, end-of-class celebrations, commissary support, and other essentials for our students.

I will keep you posted on my progress and I'm endlessly grateful for any and all support!

With love,

Maddie