Freedom Classrooms

Welcome to Freedom Classrooms.
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Our story begins in 2008, when Kaia Stern and Bruce Western co-founded the Prison Studies Project to promote critical conversations about mass incarceration. These conversations helped to inspire the Law, Education, and Justice focus area at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. For five years, we provided education in carceral spaces, fostering partnerships with organizations ranging from in-person workshops with Massachusetts Department of Youth Services to virtual course modules at San Quentin State Prison in California.

This work grew from a simple belief: everyone deserves access to learning that practices dignity, sparks creativity, and builds community.
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Today, Freedom Classrooms continues that vision. Inspired by the efforts of educators, artists, and activists of the Freedom schools movement, we create classrooms where curiosity and connection thrive— where everyone is empowered as both a teacher and student.
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Our programs are built on three guiding practices:
Bringing Arts & Humanities to Carceral Spaces – elebrating creation as a way to express freedom.
Bridging Classrooms – bringing together students inside carceral spaces and on campuses to learn with one another, transcending walls.
Healing-Centered Curriculum – nurturing honest conversation, reflection, and collective growth.
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At Freedom Classrooms, education is an opportunity to imagine and practice new possibilities for justice, together.