Earning a JD While Incarcerated: An Interview with Trailblazer Maureen Onyelobi
By Noah Austin
Maureen “Mo” Onyelobi is getting in the habit of being a pioneer. In April 2021, she took the LSAT at a state prison in the Minneapolis area, at that time making her one of only a handful of incarcerated people known to have taken the test in a prison facility.
The LSAT, though, was only the first step on Onyelobi’s legal education journey. This spring, she achieved an even bigger milestone, graduating with an ABA-approved JD degree from Mitchell Hamline School of Law . She and Jeffrey Young, a member of her class, are the first two people to graduate from law school while incarcerated in the U.S.
The graduates’ paths to a law degree were supported by the Prison to Law Pipeline , a project by Minnesota-based All Square and The Legal Revolution. Founded in 2021, the project aims to expand access to legal education for incarcerated people.
During her four-year program, Onyelobi attended classes via Zoom and completed two legal externships. She attended Mitchell Hamline’s graduation via Zoom on May 30 before the prison hosted a private graduation for her and Young on June 8; it was the first time the two trailblazers had met in person.
LSAC recently reconnected with Onyelobi (pronounced on-YELL-oh-bee) about her law school experience, her perspective on this accomplishment, and what’s next on her journey. (This phone interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)
Maureen, congratulations on earning your JD. When we first spoke with you in 2021, you’d just taken the LSAT, which you said was a challenging experience. How did it feel, the following year, to be accepted to law school?
The LSAT process was quite challenging. It wasn't like any tests I’d ever taken before, but finally, I did it — with the help of a one-on-one tutor, I was able to get the score I needed. And the day I got accepted was amazing. No one told me on the phone or through a letter; the dean of the law school at the time came to hand-deliver my acceptance letter. And it was a moment that I knew would change the trajectory of my life.
Tell us about your overall law school experience. Did it match your expectations? Was it harder or easier than you expected? Were there moments, classes, or professors who stood out?
In the beginning, law school was extremely difficult, because the Prison to Law Pipeline and Mitchell Hamline were still trying to work out the technology and the third-party transfer of documents. So, I never submitted anything directly to the teachers; it went into this [third-party] site, and then they had to switch it over to the teacher, and then the teacher had to get it. So, it was a lot of miscommunication, and it's hard to do well in class if you're not getting feedback from a teacher in real time. So, a lot of it was trying to get the kinks out, because it was a pilot program.
And it was difficult, but I never thought that I wasn't going to make it, because I like school, and that's just how I am. And also, because it was during COVID, it was hard to find a reliable place for me to go [for classwork]. That did add a lot of stress, worrying about all these things that I couldn't control at all. And then, in my first year, I had 17 different roommates — it got so ridiculous, I started to keep a list, so that's how I know. It was stressful, but I was able to get through that first year. After that first year, you're good.
Was the prison administration supportive of this process? Did you feel like they did what they could to reduce the difficulty you faced?
Surprisingly, yes. The staff were very supportive of the program. And if someone didn't support it, I didn't hear from them. Everyone I was interacting with were people who really helped me and went out of their way to be supportive.
LSAC provides a lot of support for 1L students because law school is such a change from undergraduate. We often say that the first semester of 1L is like drinking from a fire hose, because there's so much coming at you, and it's so overwhelming. Did that semester feel that way for you? And if it did, how did you overcome that and get more comfortable?
Yes, it did feel that way. But I drank from that fire hose until it turned into a fountain. And when it turned into a fountain, I knew I had overcome that challenge the same way I’ve overcome other challenges in my life. I'm a woman of faith, and I learned most of my important lessons in life from that. So, I prayed through it, and I just knew, like, part of life is not if it's difficult; it's when it's difficult. And do you know how to get through it? So, that was just one of those parts of my life where I knew I could get through it, and I just had to keep my faith strong.
Group discussions and team projects are a big part of law school, and those are challenging in a distance learning situation, especially in your circumstance. How did you go about doing that and working with classmates?
The first year, I don't think we did any group projects. It was hard, especially because we were on Zoom while everybody [else] was in person. And that first year or two was during COVID, so people were still trying to figure out Zoom.
Later on, maybe the second year, one of the professors said, "OK, let's do breakout rooms." And at first, it was just me and Jeff, and then more professors were like, "Well, why don't I just tell people to log on to their computers and go on with Mo and Jeff,” so that we could have different experiences with other students, instead of just me and him. So, it kind of progressed that way, where they utilized the technology and found out that a lot of students were eager to work with us and were happy that they could finally work with us.
Toward my last year or two, I was asynchronous. Mitchell Hamline is two-thirds asynchronous, so people are all over the country. So, it wasn't a big thing for me not to be in class; the teachers knew how to handle that. After taking classes like that, it was no problem with group projects; it was just that initial hurdle of “How do we figure this out?”
Many people who attend law school go in with one idea of what they want to do with their law degree and leave with something completely different in mind. Was that the case for you?
Before law school, I wanted to go into entertainment law, because I really liked drama and theater and things like that. And of course, being incarcerated, you think a lot about criminal law. I did a lot of research on my own case before I got into law school, so at first, I thought, "OK, maybe I want to do criminal law." Then it kind of got to, like, everybody wants me to do it, and they expect me to do it. But I’m stubborn, and I'm going to follow what I need to go and do.
Mitchell Hamline didn't have entertainment law classes, but they had intellectual property. I did a few classes in that, and it just wasn't my cup of tea. So, I am back in that criminal law atmosphere. Some of my later classes, I did some externships — I did expungements one summer and pardon applications another summer. With the expungements, maybe four of the cases I filed for people in different parts of Minnesota, they did get their records expunged.
A lot of people think of criminal law as Johnnie Cochran and these trial and courtroom settings. But I might focus more on appellate work, post-conviction work, pardon applications, and things like that. I think that is something I would really enjoy. That's where I’m focusing more: on the back end of what happens after trial.
What were your emotions as graduation approached? And how does it feel now to have done what you did and be one of the first people to have graduated while in prison?
My emotions leading up to graduation ran very high. There were a lot of unknowns. First, we were like, "Can we go [to graduation] in person, or can we not?" Then it was like, "Well, you can't." Then we were going to have graduation right here [at the prison], but they weren't telling us anything. So, there was a lot of anxiety leading up to it.
We were able to go to the Mitchell Hamline graduation on Zoom, and that was good. But the in-person graduation was phenomenal. For that hour and a half, I didn't feel like I was in prison. I was around people who were proud of me and had supported and encouraged me. This was my fourth higher-education graduation, and it was by far the best.
And it was so amazing to have my father there, because now, all three of his daughters have our doctorates. I have my JD, my little sister has her doctorate in business administration, and my older sister is a medical doctor — she's a neonatologist. So, that was really special, to make my father proud, because he's 78, and I've been in here for 12½ years. It was a proud moment for him and the rest of my family.
I’m also proud that I made history and opened some doors that matter. At some point, 95% of people who are incarcerated will be released back into the community. So, what I'm doing here does affect society as a whole. I'm giving hope to other incarcerated people in this country and all over the world. I'm telling legal professionals that it's OK to accept people who are incarcerated and have them be a part of the community. Why not? We can help encourage other people to do better. And I'm an example of how work and dedication can pay off no matter where you're at.
The former dean [of Mitchell Hamline], Anthony Niedwiecki, was in Puerto Rico at the time of my graduation, but the Prison to Law Pipeline sent me a letter from him that was supposed to be read at the graduation. One thing that he said in his letter was: "In the entire history of American legal education, stretching back over two centuries, this has never happened until today." It's amazing to know that I’m making history and making a difference.
Now that you've graduated, your next step is the bar exam. Are there obstacles to that because you're incarcerated?
There are always going to be obstacles, but we're taking it one step at a time. And we do plan on taking the bar in Minnesota. There have been some talks with the bar association here, and they are contingently approving us to take the bar next February.
So, I started bar prep just the other day, doing a little self-study and watching some videos from some free resources from Mitchell Hamline. And in August, I’ll start one-on-one tutoring.
Some people have six weeks of prep; I have eight months. So, I have plenty of time, and compared with the LSAT, I’m feeling confident about it. The bar is testing on material that I know and I'm good at. So, I'm just going to keep drinking from that fire hose.
I saw that your sentence was partly commuted in 2023, making you eligible for parole down the line, and I know you’re still working to have your sentence reduced further. When you are released, what do you envision doing with your law degree?
In a dream scenario, I’d want to have my own practice and work for myself, just because I know it's possible and I'll be able to say I built something from the ground up. Realistically, wherever I can get a job, I will. But wherever I end up, I want to be able to help the community and have people come in and see somebody who’s been through what they've been through. Because I have that lived experience and that knowledge, and even the vernacular, to talk to them in a way that they can understand, which you can't learn in a book.
