The Yale program was launched in 2016 by alum Zelda Roland. It was based on a similar program she was part of while working with Wesleyan University.
Yale partnered with UNH in 2021, giving the student-inmates a path to two and four year college degrees. The program, which offers classes at McDougall-Walker and the federal women’s prison in Danbury, is now part of a consortium that includes 15 schools and prison systems across the country.