Since leaving prison in December 2023, Benard McKinley, 39, has been busy preparing for huge next steps.
Between working and visits from friends and family, McKinley is getting ready for his first year of study at the prestigious Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, a historic achievement.
“Just months ago, I was still behind prison bars, and not knowing exactly how the future of going to law school would turn out. So to be home and know I’m going to law school … is an amazing feeling,” McKinley told the Guardian.
McKinley is the first person from Northwestern University’s Prison Education Program (NPEP) to be accepted into any law school, including Northwestern’s, which boasts a 4% acceptance rate.
The NPEP scheme grants bachelor’s degrees, among just a handful of programs in the US that offer a collage-level education to incarcerated people.
McKinley, who served 22 and a half years in prison, finished his bachelor’s degree last year and applied for a place at the prestigious law school, all while incarcerated at the Stateville correctional center in northern Illinois.
McKinley and his classmates were the inaugural class of NPEP, one of four cohorts with 20 incarcerated students in the program overall.
Northwestern has stated that graduates in McKinley’s class are the first incarcerated students to receive a bachelor’s degree from a top 10 US university, as measured by rankings from US News & World report.
McKinley said he had always wanted to go to college. But the 39-year old’s mainstream education stopped abruptly when he received a criminal sentence while still a teenager.
“I was already passionate about trying to go to college, I just didn’t know how or when that would happen,” he said.
McKinley was sentenced when he was 19 to nearly 100 years in prison after being convicted of a gang-related murder.
While incarcerated, he began studying the law with the aim of appealing his case as well as helping others serving time alongside him with their legal problems.
He first obtained his GED and paralegal diploma behind bars and was eager to continue his education. McKinley applied and was accepted into the highly competitive NPEP program, a rare opportunity to get a bachelor’s degree while incarcerated. In 2023, out of 400 people who applied, only 40 were accepted.
Northwestern University’s degree requirements were rigorous and McKinley studied intensely, taking classes on political science, thermodynamics and more, pushing through the Covid-19 pandemic in the process, like millions of other college students.
The NPEP experience proved transformative, he said. “It allowed me to reflect on who I thought I was, who I wanted to be, and where I wanted to go,” he said, adding that classes taught him how social ills, such as systemic racism, manifest in society.
He started applying for law school last year – taking the LSAT examination, writing application essays and collecting letters of recommendation, all while incarcerated.
McKinley wrote his application essay on his personal journey, detailing how he went from being incarcerated at the age of 19 to obtaining a degree from the prestigious university. Those handwritten essays were then typed out by NPEP tutors, many of whom wrote letters on McKinley’s behalf to the law school admissions committee.
He found the best time to study was late at night or “five, six in the morning”, but it was difficult in the prison environment.
“At the end of the day, prison still has a negative social dynamic and to be able to block all that out and focus can be challenging,” McKinley said.
McKinley was released from prison early into transitional housing, while his law school application was still pending.
In a rare case, his original sentence was successfully reduced to 25 years by the Illinois appellate court, which said that the judge who originally tried McKinley’s case did not take his young age into consideration or the efforts he had made to rehabilitate.
At Northwestern, graduating students walk under a famous arch that forms the university’s entry gate as part of a commencement tradition.
Early in 2024, McKinley was able to as well, and it was one of the first things he did after being released, to mark his degree.
“That was an amazing feeling,” McKinley said. “To know that, no matter how my journey led up to getting to that point. I was still welcome to participate in that type of tradition.”
Soon after, McKinley heard he’d been accepted into law school.
Sheila Bedi, clinical law professor and director of the community justice clinic at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, said:
“He’s just an exceptional student on so many levels. He’s rigorous, disciplined, eager to learn, passionate about self-growth.” She added that other Northwestern law students were “thrilled” for McKinley to join the community. She is eager for more programs like NPEP.
“There are so many other Benards who could come home and could be contributing positively to their communities, but who are not provided that opportunity,” Bedi said.
McKinley hopes to become a civil rights lawyer and open his own legal aid clinic to help other marginalized communities.
Now the first person in his family to attend college, let alone law school, he is relishing the achievement while also feeling responsibility.
“It feels amazing. I’m definitely a positive role model for the future generation and my family. So you know, I have a job to do,” he said.
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