As a new year begins, take an inside look at what's happening at Keyway this month!
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From all of us at Keyway, Happy New Year!
As 2025 begins, we want to thank you for your continued support and look forward to a spectacular year ahead filled with second chances, difference-making change and purpose-driven progress for justice-involved women.
Since 2014, Washington University’s Continuing and Professional Studies (CAPS) Prison Education Project (PEP) has aimed to provide high-quality, fully accredited liberal arts educational pathways to incarcerated individuals. In order to address educational inequities within the Missouri prison system, PEP offers both an associate and bachelor’s degree curriculum, which is designed to emulate as much as possible the Washington University (WashU) on-campus experience.
“PEP is primarily about providing in-person, rigorous academic programs to non-traditional students,” shares PEP Reentry Advocate, Denis Shine.“Securing housing and employment is roughly 75% of the struggle for successful reentry post-incarceration.”
A WashU education helps with critical thinking skills, as well as supporting personal connection. The student’s self-esteem increases through accomplishment and working in an environment of mutual worth and respect.
PEP’s partnership with Keyway began in 2020 when PEP expanded their educational offerings to include female students at the Women's Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia, MO. WashU held their first graduation in Vandalia in May of this year, where 11 students received their associate degrees. All are now working towards their bachelor’s degrees. Keyway board member, and former Keyway participant, Jessica Hicklin was instrumental in implementing the technology solutions required for this expansion.
“Keyway has been extremely helpful in providing housing and support services for our female students. While working in tandem, we ensure Keyway participants have access to a liberal arts education taught by WashU faculty and WashU graduate students, and a true WashU experience,” Denis continues.
In just a decade, PEP has worked with 142 students and has conferred 58 degrees to 40 of them. Currently, 90 students are enrolled in a variety of disciplines, including math, sociology, biology, English, philosophy, astronomy, psychology, economics, art history, drama, physics, history and anthropology.
A special thank you to Denis, and PEP’s Savannah Sowell and Ella Siegrist for giving Keyway participants an academic chance to shine, and for always believing in their potential!
To learn more about PEP, please click the button below.
Pictured: Keyway participant and PEP graduate Natasha W. Photo courtesy of PEP.
As a new year begins, so does a new legislative session. For the 2025 session, the Keyway Advocacy Advisory Board will focus on the following areas: the restoration of voting rights to releasees on probation and parole, the repeal of the lifetime ban on SNAP benefits for most felony drug offenders, the cessation of shackling incarcerated inmates during childbirth in county jails, the capping of prison phone rates at 12 cents per minute and the elimination of tax on diapers.
In addition, the Advocacy Advisory Board will once again join forces with Missouri Appleseed, a fellow St. Louis-based nonprofit who's mission is to create change that results in stronger families and reduced recidivism, in early April for its annual Advocacy Day -- a day for Keyway staff, participants and board members to travel to Jefferson City to meet with legislators.
To learn more about this upcoming session and the bills mentioned above, please click below.
"A common thread — an idiom describing a shared theme that connects different things. When referring to the relationship between the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild and Keyway, this phrase couldn’t ring truer.
Founded in 2010, the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild (STLMQG), a chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild, an international guild with over 230 chapters in eight countries, including Australia, India, Germany, Brazil, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, offers a creative space for quilters of any skill level to create and share quilts of modern aesthetics.
“The STLMQG shares quilting resources and education, of course, but we also create community,” shares STLMQG President Octavia Pitts.
With a membership of 215+ and growing, readers may be surprised by the age range and experience of quilters within the guild.
“The beauty of our guild is that we’re warm and friendly to all, regardless of skill level or age. Our youngest member is 19 and just beginning, and our oldest is a little older than that with more than 50 years of experience. We are always happy to welcome new members and share our time and knowledge,” says Octavia.
Each year, the STLMQG’s Charity Committee identifies a local group to share their time and talents with. This year, the guild chose Keyway.
“After taking a unanimous vote amongst our members, we called and asked, ‘What do your participants need? We would love to make it.’ Within minutes, we landed on tote bags — something each participant could call their own and take with them in their everyday lives,” Octavia shares.
In a matter of seven months, the STLMQG handmade 75 totes, 46 zipper pouches, 26 quilts and 5 pillowcases for Keyway’s nearly 70 participants. A feat greeted with heartfelt gratitude and a sweet surprise.
“While dropping off the tote bags at the top of December, some of our guild members had the pleasure of meeting a Keyway participant. After receiving her tote bag, she asked our members to stick around for a few minutes. Upon her return, she shared something totally unexpected — a beautiful quilt she had just completed with the help of Sew Hope — a nonprofit dedicated to sewing education,” said Octavia.
When asked about the power of quilting and its connection to community, Octavia says, “Recognizing each other through the art of quilting defies current situations and obstacles, backgrounds, perspectives, socioeconomics and so much more. Quilting is a true labor of love, and it gives us the thread to connect with one another far beyond our sewing needles and pattern blocks.”
In addition to the totes, zipper pouches, quilts and pillowcases, the STLMQG also collected and donated nearly 700 personal hygiene items.
To date, the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild has made well over 1,000 quilts and provided aide to more than 10 charities throughout the St. Louis region.
To learn more about the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild, including meeting and event information, visit stlmqg.org.
An extra special thank you to Octavia, the STLMQG Charity Committee, and the STLMQG members for giving Keyway’s participants a holiday gift made straight from the heart! The time, talent and passion put into every stitch is seen and deeply appreciated!
Pictured (from left to right): René Shoults, Laura Patterson, Nancy Dlugosz, Lynda Mueller Drendel and Gina Shelley of the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild dropping off totes to Keyway participants last month.
Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild.
Patty Prewitt Granted Clemency
On December 20, 2024—after nearly 40 years behind bars—Patty Prewitt, the longest-serving woman in prison in the state of Missouri, was finally granted clemency. But to those who know her, she is much more than a record; she is a beacon of hope and a source of comfort to countless incarcerated women, including many of Keyway’s participants.
Actively involved with organizations such as Washington University’s Prison Education Project (PEP) and Prison Performing Arts (PPA), Patty seized every opportunity to expand her knowledge and uplift others. Former Missouri Department of Corrections Director George Lombardi once remarked, “Despite her life sentence, Patty has accomplished more, given more, and touched the lives of more individuals than many of us outside prison will ever achieve.”
Keyway participants agree. One shared, “Despite all those years of being in there for something she probably didn’t do, she stayed positive. She was a role model and mother figure to so many. Patty took many women under her wing when they struggled, including me.”
We wish Patty all the best as she begins this new chapter of her life!
To learn more about PPA, please click the button below.
Pictured Patty Prewitt. Photo courtesy of Patty Prewitt.com.
We're hiring! Do you or someone you know have a passion for diversion and reentry work? Or a drive to empower women, strengthen families and transform communities? If so, consider applying to one of the following open roles at Keyway:
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Copyright (C) 2025 Keyway Center for Diversion & Reentry. All rights reserved.
Keyway Center for Diversion & Reentry 5017 Washington Place, Suite 202 St. Louis, MO 63108
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