California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation Should Add a Degree in Gaming
By Richard Nedd
Rising Voices is a series of articles written by incarcerated journalism students at the California Institute for Men (CIM) in Chino, CA, in partnership with Chaffey College’s student paper, The Breeze. These students are working towards their AA-T degrees in Journalism through Chaffey College’s Rising Scholars Program. This series is dedicated to amplifying the voices of incarcerated reporters through accurate, ethical, and impactful journalism. Our mission is to illuminate lived experiences behind the walls and foster understanding across communities.
The California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (CDCR) doesn’t offer incarcerated people a wide variety of choices when it comes to earning a college degree. They offer courses like communication, business, journalism and sociology, but they do not offer any courses to do with new modern-day technology like coding or cybersecurity. This leaves post-release individuals at a disadvantage when it comes to looking for a job. Because of this, CDCR should bring a gaming design course here to California Institute for Men (C.I.M.).
“Video games have become the most important 21st-century cultural industry in terms of both audience size and economic activity”, says Xavier Rubio-Campillo, a lecturer from the University of Edinburgh. This means that video games are not going anywhere anytime soon and as long as the industry continues to grow, it will always need people to help create the designs of new games. Providing a game design course will help ensure a long career in the gaming design world and help keep the recidivism rate down by keeping graduates employed post-release.
Game design is a course that will encourage incarcerated people to think outside the box by teaching them the skills and techniques of interactivity and problem-solving for cognitive learning. It challenges a person to use their creativity to come up with an interesting game that someone else would possibly enjoy, while at the same time allowing them to express themselves through artwork by learning a skill that will be around for a long time.
In addition, game design will give incarcerated individuals the opportunity to express themselves through artwork through drawing, which is also known to be therapeutic. This gives the course a dual purpose by allowing incarcerated people to release stress in a creative and productive way. Jennifer E. Drake, in her article “Drawing to Distract: Examining the Psychological Benefits of Drawing Over Time,” writes that, “many case studies of patients receiving art therapy report mood improvement and a few experimental studies have also demonstrated that art therapy is beneficial in reducing trauma-related symptoms.”
By reducing an incarcerated person’s stress level, it makes it easier for that person to focus more on their rehabilitation and help them to continue with their positive programming. It is time for us to really focus on the new letter added recently to CDC, the letter R, which stands for rehabilitation. While it was added in 2005, it did not go into effect until July 1, 2025.
Furthermore, this course gives an incarcerated person the opportunity to show their family that they can graduate from college and earn a degree. It will help them provide for themselves and their family by giving them a job upon graduation, even if the individual is still incarcerated. This course is not only beneficial to the incarcerated population, it is also beneficial to the community and staff members within and around CDCR as well.
This course is beneficial to the outside community because it will help lower the recidivism rate by giving an incarcerated person a chance to make a living wage after they have served their sentence. This gives a formerly incarcerated person a chance at survival rather than putting them in a difficult financial situation post-release.
In a study entitled “Recidivism of Felony Offenders in California” conducted by Mia Bird, Justin Goss and Viet Nguyen, it states that, “the share of felony offenders rearrested for any offense within two years declined somewhat from 68 percent to 66 percent over the four-year period. The two-year reconviction rate for any offense substantially from 41 percent to 35 percent.” When a student is able to find a job post-release, it helps deter them from turning back to a life of crime.
This course will also help provide a better work environment here at CIM for the correctional staff. If incarcerated people’s stress levels are down from drawing and creating games, it would help reduce the number of violent incidents on the yard.
In a journal called “Inside the Box: Safety, Health, and Isolation in Prison,” the author, Bruce Westerns, says that “work and education programs are often found to be associated with reduced recidivism.” This shows that tax payers’ money is being put to good use not just giving incarcerated people free education but helping to rehabilitate and to continue reducing recidivism.
It is time for a change here at CIM and within the CDCR system. By focusing on the R for rehabilitation instead of people’s negative past, we can make a change. Steps have already been made towards the new California Model that CDCR has adopted which aims to make prison a tolerable and safer environment for everyone. Now, they must continue to allow incarcerated individuals to focus more on rehabilitation and give them the tools to be released back into society as a better person through offering courses in game design
About the Writer - Richard Nedd
Richard Nedd is currently working on his Communication and Sociology Degree with Chaffey College. He is a temporary resident at the California Institution for Men. He was inspired to write this piece inspired by his passion to help the next incarcerated person regain their freedom. He is a son, a brother, a loving husband and an uncle whose mission is dedicated to rehabilitation for himself and others.