Growing up with system-impacted family members, Jessica Vargas was familiar with the effects of incarceration early on. Her experience drove her to get involved with EJP’s Prison-to-Gown Pathway (PGP) program, where she conducted outreach to justice-impacted students on the Illinois campus and connected them with resources.
Jessica is from Humboldt Park, a Puerto Rican neighborhood on the west side of Chicago, which she says, “really shaped my identity.” Her background was different from most of her peers. “I knew that a lot of people from my community were incarcerated at some point, or still were,” she remembers growing up. Still, she didn’t have the knowledge of systemic racism to understand it.
In the 8th Grade, she had progressive social studies teacher who showed 13th, a documentary by filmmaker Ava DuVernay which argues that mass incarceration is an extension of slavery. Convinced she wanted to do something about it, Jessica was inspired to become a criminal defense attorney.
Still, she had doubts about becoming a lawyer. “You had to defend the law and use the law to defend your client, but what if the laws were unjust?” she wondered.
At the University of Illinois, Jessica enrolled in courses in political science and Latino/Latina studies. She read books like Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. In her senior year, Jessica took the class, History of the Prison, taught by Rebecca Ginsburg. She responded to an invitation to work with Education Justice Project and was paired up with the Prison-to-Gown Program which was then just getting off the ground.
“At first, we were gathering contacts of local organizations and people on campus who were likely to be allies. Professors might share the information with their students, put up a flyer in their classroom, or allow us to go to their class to talk about what services we offered.” It was important to navigate getting PGP information into the hands of the right people, while also not isolating justice-impacted students. “Obviously, there’s a huge stigma around having a criminal background, and a lot of barriers,” Jessica says.
Working with Chrissy Ferree, Prison-to-Gown Program Manager, Jessica helped compile a toolkit of resources focusing on housing and federal student aid. They provided information on how to apply to the University of Illinois and helped coach individuals on how to respond to the infamous “box” on student application forms asking about criminal backgrounds.
“Jessica joined PGP at a pivotal moment,” says Chrissy Ferree, “just as we were transitioning from planning and research to developing our own resources. Her invaluable contributions and deep commitment to social justice have helped shape the program. Though she has since graduated, Jessica remains an integral part of our work, continuing to support students. She is currently assisting a student from Danville Correctional Center who aspires to pursue graduate school upon release.”
Jessica graduated from the University of Illinois in May 2024 and is currently applying to law school.
In the statement included with her application, Jessica writes about how she has gained perspective on how to make change. “Through my work with EJP, I came to understand how a program can strive for the end of a system while helping those most impacted by it […]. I realized it isn’t a matter of changing the world instantaneously, or revolutionizing systems from one day to the next. Instead, it’s working towards making a difference one person at a time that will ultimately add up to something transformative.”
We wish the best of luck to Jessica in her future career!