LIFTED, or Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees, is a pilot program giving incarcerated individuals a chance to pursue a bachelor's degree at University of California-Irvine. … "People in prison tend to have lower literacy rates, have had a lower rate of education than the average person outside of prison," explained Keramet Reiter, a professor of criminology, law and society and director of the program. "So this is a way to work on that and address those challenges that might have landed people there in the first place." … "Prison is not what we're used to, teaching on campus," said faculty member Nicole Iturriaga, [assistant] professor of criminology, law and society. "After a while, you're getting into your stuff and the class and they're so engaged and they're asking so many questions ….

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