Jane Wilson
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Jane Wilson 2013 fellow
Bold Idea
Empower incarcerated young adult black men to succeed professionally and personally by creating a prison model entirely focused on education and reentry into the community.
Organization
The Reset Foundation aims to dismantle the "cradle to prison" by creating a new model of prison, one completely focused on empowering incarcerated adults to succeed in life and contribute to their communities in meaningful ways. Our Reset model equips incarcerated men from underserved neighborhoods with the vision, skills, and opportunities needed to succeed professionally and personally. The Reset Foundation partners with government agencies to operate incarceration settings that look and feel like effective learning environments. We are currently exploring two pilot campuses, one in California and one in New York.
Biography
After five years of teaching and tutoring in jails, Jane concluded that "tinkering around the edges" in the field of correctional education was not enough: to truly free communities from the cycle of poverty and crime, we needed to dramatically alter what was happening in prison. Jane then dedicated four years of graduate school to developing a model of prison completely focused on learning, education, and empowering individuals to succeed once released. In 2012, she teamed up with Jen Porter to launch The Reset Foundation and move the concept from theory to implementation. Prior to Reset, Jane worked as an attorney at Kaye Scholer, LLP and on the strategy team of NYC's Department of Education's District 79 (Alternative Schools and Programs). She was instrumental in founding the ROADS Charter High Schools, a network of schools serving overage, under-credited youth, and now serves on their Board of Directors. Jane graduated from Stanford in Political Science with Honors in Education, and holds a JD from Columbia Law School and Masters in Educational Leadership from Columbia Teachers College. She is also currently pursuing a Masters from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
