Prison inmate enrolls with Mitchell Hamline

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Mitchell Hamline School of Law will make history when it becomes the first ABA-accredited law school to have a student attend while living inside a prison. Mitchell Hamline announced June 13 that Maureen Onyelobi will be the school’s first currently incarcerated law student.

This moment is the culmination of gut checks about expanding access to the profession, making an action plan, and figuring out the administrative elements necessary to make it happen. The story begins at least a few years back, however.

For the last few years, Mitchell Hamline has partnered with an organization called All Square. The nonprofit provides opportunities to those who have been impacted by mass incarceration. One of All Square’s initiatives is the Prison to Law Pipeline, where the organization is facilitating ABA-accredited law and paralegal degrees for incarcerated legal scholars.

This is part of a larger vision than just making history: The organization will develop a prototype for employing incarcerated legal practitioners and will roll out the prototype to partnering law firms across the globe.

The Prison to Law Pipeline already has an undergraduate paralegal program, in existence since 2021. It is conducted in partnership with North Hennepin Community College.

Maya Johnson, director of the Prison to Law Pipeline Program, said, “The aim of the program is to democratize legal education and transform the legal landscape by putting the keys to the law in the hands of those most impacted by it.”

Mitchell Hamline and All Square have previously collaborated to provide legal services for formerly incarcerated persons. Additionally, Mitchell Hamline has two legal clinics that provide services to those who have been incarcerated and are currently incarcerated: the Reentry Clinic and the Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners (LAMP).

Then, in 2020, George Floyd was murdered, sending shockwaves across the country and into the law schools. In 2021, Mitchell Hamline President and Dean Anthony Niedwiecki proctored the LSAT at two Minnesota prisons. At the time, Niedwiecki said, “We’ve talked about being an antiracist law school, and our faculty passed a resolution committing to being an antiracist law school. This project would be an actual step toward being an antiracist law school.”

In May, Mitchell Hamline received permission from the ABA to allow up to two incarcerated students to enroll for each of the next five years. Onyelobi will attend class fully online.

Johnson says that some of the obstacles to this moment have been providing LSAT preparation from within the prison, preparing and providing technical assistance to facilitate law school, and providing services to support academic and mental health needs. The Minnesota Department of Corrections also had to sign off.

In the official press release, Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said he was proud to support the effort: “To have those who have been through the system help craft and challenge the law by accessing high-standard legal education for the betterment of themselves, and for the betterment and service to others, is a remarkable opportunity.”

Besides a strong commitment to anti-racism, Niedwiecki says that Mitchell Hamline has a culture of bringing people into the profession. “Our law school has a history dating back more than a century of always working to expand access to legal education and trying to redefine the idea around who gets to attend law school. More than 100 years ago, the idea of offering night class to people who had full-time jobs was revolutionary, and we were part of that. This is a next chapter in that long story,” Niedwiecki said.

Onyelobi, the program’s first student, is originally from the south side of Chicago and moved to Minnesota. While in the state for a short time, she became involved in a situation that led to a shooting death. She was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder on an accomplice-liability theory. Onyelobi was sentenced to life in prison in 2014.

According to a petition on Change.org, Onyelobi said, “I am still in utter disillusion about how I was convicted of aiding and abetting first-degree murder and my conviction was upheld three times, when I didn’t even know the murder was going to happen and had no time to withdraw.” She continues, “I am just one person caught up in this criminal justice system that has turned into a well-oiled machine of baselessness and systematic racism, but I pray my voice can give strength in a world that is in unrest.”

Before and after the murder, Onyelobi demonstrated her academic abilities, completing two college degrees. She was accepted to a Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing when she was arrested. Onyelobi has already begun her legal studies while incarcerated. In 2020, she graduated with distinction and received her paralegal diploma. Aside from the academic abilities, Niedwiecki remarked that she has “the resilience necessary to be a successful law student.”

Onyelobi’s diversity of life experience has also been lauded as a reason she will be a great addition to Mitchell Hamline. “Her insight will be invaluable in classes and our students will benefit. When our students take criminal law courses, having Maureen there to say ‘and my experience was this…’ will add something that quite arguably no such course in the country has ever had,” Niedwiecki said.

Professor Bradford W. Colbert, who supervises Mitchell Hamline’s Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners clinic, remarked, “We build walls, literal and figurative walls, between people who have committed crimes and the community. In so doing, we treat people who commit crimes as criminals instead of the people that they are. By admitting an incarcerated student into law school, we can start breaking down the figurative walls.”

On June 9, Onyelobi received word that she was accepted. Niedwiecki, as well as director and Co-Founder of the Legal Revolution John Goeppinger, visited Onyelobi in person at Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee to deliver the news. Niedwiecki said, “I have never been more moved during my career than when I was able to visit Maureen recently to deliver the news that she had been accepted.”

Everyone involved in this process has extremely high hopes not just for Onyelobi but also for the profession as a whole. Niedwiecki said, “I hope it helps people better understand that law school isn’t just something that a certain group of people should attend…which is certainly how it was designed more than a century ago. If we are going to have a legal profession and a justice system that reflects the people of this country, it should include people from all parts of the country and all lived experiences, including being incarcerated.”

Colbert said of Onyelobi’s historic admission: “We’re hoping to change the world, or at least the criminal justice system. Mass incarceration did not happen with a flip of a switch; our country made a series of decisions that resulted in our country having more people incarcerated than any other country in the world. We are hoping that admitting an incarcerated person into law school will be one of those decisions that begins to end mass incarceration.”

In addition to transforming the legal profession and shedding light on mass incarceration, there are more immediate practical benefits to society. Niedwiecki explained, “Numerous studies have found that recidivism rates drop when a person who is incarcerated earns an education degree, and they plummet with each subsequent degree. This is also a benefit to society. Our corrections system already offers GED, undergraduate, and graduate education to people in prisons; offering a law school education is a logical next step.” He continued, “The vast majority of people who serve time in prisons will one day be released; what if they all had a legal education when they exited? Imagine how that would shape both their lives and the law.”

Onyelobi has a long road ahead of her in pursuing a degree that requires a tremendous amount of work to attain, in addition to doing it in a setting vastly different than her classmates. There are concerns also about what Onyelobi’s path looks like after she completes law school, as she still will have to submit to character and fitness requirements. Johnson said, “Ultimately, we know that licensure is still an obstacle that Maureen may face upon the completion of her degree, and that is an obstacle The Legal Revolution hopes to continue to work on and advocate for graduates of the Pipeline as a whole.”