Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minn. this summer accepted their first incarcerated student.
The announcement from the institution says this will make it the first ABA-approved law school in the country to educate currently incarcerated individuals and accept a currently incarcerated person into its program.
The student, Maureen Onyelobi, will continue her education at Mitchell Hamline starting in the fall of 2022, the school said in a press release.
In June, Onyelobi received word of acceptance from School President and Law School Dean Anthony Niedwiecki and John Goeppinger, the director and co-founder of the Legal Revolution. According to a local report, both Niedwiecki and Goeppinger traveled to deliver the news at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee in person.
Onyelobi said she desired to learn the law because she knows what it’s like to be on the other side of it.
“We have a drive and a passion to learn the law that most have never seen before because we know what it is to be in here,” Onyelobi said. “We know what it’s like to be on this side of the law.”
The American Bar Association recently granted a variance allowing Onyelobi to attend the law school while in state prison inside the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee, the press release said.
All of Onyelobi’s classes will be online, and private fundraising and scholarship assistance will pay for tuition, according to the school.
This effort is part of the “Prison to Law Pipeline” plan, which aims to “transform the law through initiatives that center racial equity, wellness, and the expertise of those most impacted by the law,” according to school officials.
