It is well established that educating incarcerated individuals reduces recidivism. In the United States recent legislation has increased the opportunity for institutions of higher education to work with the prison population in support of the attainment of college and even graduate degrees. The University of California (UCI) Lifted Program is the first example within the UC system where a university has successfully implemented such an initiative. UCI graduated its first class of 23 sociology majors residing at Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in June 2024.

Operations Management, commonly a core course in business administration program, is not the first course that one might consider for this educational setting. The class, which focuses on organizational effectiveness, appears to contrast significantly from the experience of students who live within institutional confines. On the other hand, Operations Management is fundamentally a course about improvement and positioned in the right way the course could be a highly valued experience for the incarcerated as it delivers understanding with respect to how they can contribute positive changes both in their context and in their own self-improvement journey.

This work describes the experience of the instructor in teaching Operations Management to three cohorts of students at Donovan. It provides ideas for how this course and others can be positioned to create both personal growth and empowerment for this underserved population. It is fundamentally about demonstrating mechanisms that students can apply in practice as they continue their journey towards making better choices in their own lives and for the benefit of society.

Keywords: Prison Education, Diverse Students, Empowering the Underserved.