For the fifth consecutive fall semester, Professor Dan Keating, Tyrrell Williams Professor of Law, is bringing his law classroom beyond Anheuser-Busch Hall. This semester, Professor Keating is teaching at the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center (WERDCC) in Vandalia, Missouri, as part of WashU’s Prison Education Project (PEP). Keating’s co-teacher for the course is his former law student, Omri Praiss ’93, who is a retired litigation attorney.
Keating first began teaching in PEP in 2022, when he co-taught a three-credit Introduction to Law and Society course at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center (MECC) in Pacific with Mark Smith ’86, a WashU Law alum who spent most of his career working for the law school and the University. Keating later reflected on that experience in his essay, Lessons Learned in Prison, describing his decision to step outside his usual teaching environment and volunteer in the program.
In his essay, Professor Keating wrote, “I learned more this past semester than I have for quite some time. Not only did I cover areas of the law that I had not studied for almost forty years, but more importantly, I learned about our criminal justice system up close and personal.”
PEP provides incarcerated individuals with access to WashU courses and pathways toward Associate and Bachelor’s degrees. The program began offering classes at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center (MECC) in 2014 and expanded to WERDCC in 2021. Today, courses span disciplines including law, mathematics, sociology, biology, English, philosophy, history and anthropology, and are taught by WashU faculty and graduate students.
Professor Keating is one of a small number of tenured WashU faculty members who teach regularly in PEP. His work in the program reflects a broader commitment among WashU faculty and graduate students to bringing a university education into Missouri correctional facilities. Learn more about the Prison Education Project
