The idea of learning to code while she was incarcerated at the Indiana Women’s Prison was intriguing to Ashley Wallace. She had already done a food safety course and a re-entry program. She saw coding as “another skill set I can have so when I get home I have something I can go on and am able to do.” 

The classes were hard. “I think I said I wanted to quit a few times,” she said, “ but I pushed through and I made it. And I’m actually really glad I did.” 

Wallace learned to code through a program called The Last Mile, which trains incarcerated people to code. The program, which is based in California, started at San Quentin Prison in 2010. Since then, it’s expanded to six other states, including Indiana and Oklahoma. 

Finding meaningful work that pays a decent wage can be especially hard for people coming out of prison. Training programs in prisons often aren’t very good. Women’s prisons tend to have fewer course offerings overall, and they’re often in less lucrative fields.  

States have to train people in fields with “real career potential,” said Margaret diZerega, who works at the Vera Institute of Justice helping expand access to education programs in prison. DiZerega says she’s starting to see more offerings in things like computer aided drafting, advanced manufacturing, horticulture, wind turbine repair and solar technology. 

Part of The Last Mile’s mission is to help its graduates find good jobs when they get out of prison. Molly Rowe graduated from The Last Mile three years ago. Now out of prison and living in California, she works for the program, helping her fellow graduates with re-entry. 

“We will do everything we can to help you get to the goals that you want,” she told students on a recent visit back to the prison. The classroom where she learned to code is decorated with handmade signs that say things like “Girls Who Code.” 

“Whether that’s software engineering or you want to open a bakery or you want to open whatever. You want to be a business entrepreneur, we have stuff for that,” Rowe told the more than a dozen women sitting behind large computer monitors. 

Tanika Stewart, who’s currently in the program, said she knew she had to take it on herself to make the best of her time in prison. She liked “how they train you,” she said, but she was also drawn to the fact that ”how upon your release, they help you find a job.”

Finding good jobs post-incarceration is especially important for women, because so many support young children. The Last Mile says says many of its graduates now work in tech.