Colorado has taken a pioneering step as one of the first states to employ an incarcerated professor in a prison education program. It is a move that could have big impacts on incarcerated people and society more broadly.

Chalkbeat Colorado鈥檚 Jason Gonzales to learn more. He spoke David Carillo, an incarcerated professor who now goes by the prison name 鈥淧rofessor.鈥�

Carillo told Gonzales he has been in and out of the criminal justice system since he was a kid. 鈥淢y worldview was very narrow for a very, very long time, as you could imagine. I believed that life was a certain way. And this is all that there was to offer to, to people like me."

As Carillo advanced in his studies, 鈥渢he world opened up to me. So my perceptions and my view of everything has, shifted.鈥�

He said that with this program he is helping other incarcerated people to change what they believe is possible and broaden their worldviews.

Gonzales joined In The NoCo鈥檚 to talk about what he learned during the time he spent with Carillo and others in Canon City.