What if the key to safer communities was not harsher punishments, but smarter rehabilitation? At the California Institution for Men (CIM), a new vision is taking shape—one that sees individuals not as permanent outsiders, but as future contributors. The solution is simple yet powerful: vocational innovation that equips people with real, transferable job skills.

From prison uniforms to caps and gowns, Rising Scholars offers access to higher education for incarcerated individuals.

Low pay inside California prisons raises questions about fairness, rehabilitation and the ability to repay restitution.