Common Good Atlanta

In 2008, Sarah Higinbotham, while working on her Ph.D at Georgia State University, wanted to teach a literature class in a Georgia prison. Much to her surprise, she discovered that no college education programs existed in Georgia prisons at the time. So she started one. Incarcerated men signed up for her no-credit classes to study Shakespeare, Milton, Baldwin, and more on a college level. One class led to another. In 2010 she was joined by Atlanta musician and GSU writing instructor Bill Taft. The word got out. Today over 100 professors from area colleges and 700 incarcerated students have joined together in four prisons and a downtown Atlanta class to participate in a liberal arts education. Students and faculty have described the program as one of the most powerful learning experiences they've ever been involved in.