Brittney Dixon has high hopes for her education.
“I want to get my master’s,” Dixon says. “Dreaming big. I want to get into psychology, be a therapist.”
The 29-year-old is incarcerated at Taycheedah, a state women’s prison in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
“Prison is a horrible experience, but because we’re in this predicament, it’s like maybe this is what people needed to go back to school,” Dixon says. “I know that I had every other excuse when I was out not to.”
Wisconsin prisons have historically focused education efforts on GED classes and vocational training — not college. But that’s starting to change.