From inside prison and without a computer, Kevin McCarthy went on to persuade one of the world’s best universities to let him in. He is the first incarcerated applicant ever accepted to UC Berkeley where, at 41, he is a senior.

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McCarthy is also one of a growing number of prisoners being accepted to California colleges, thanks to activists and the supportive programs they’ve created on many campuses.

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Enrollment from prison rose after the passage of SB1391, which let colleges collect state funding for incarcerated students. Today, 14% of California’s nearly 99,000 prisoners are enrolled in community college.

And enrollment is about to explode again.

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“Their belief in me made me believe in myself”: Hinting at the potential of those incarcerated is the story of McCarthy, whose life mirrors that of so many people behind prison walls.

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While in prison, McCarthy began helping other prisoners with administrative appeals. He examined depositions, wrote a civil rights complaint. He filed at least 30 legal challenges.

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McCarthy is now a part of UC Berkley’s Underground Scholars initiative (Underground Scholars), which helps build a prison-to-university pipeline and helps incarcerated and formally incarcerated people navigate their education.

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