Creating change, one mile at a time

When he’s not attending to his duties as School of Education’s Associate Dean and preparing to step into the Interim Dean role, Professor Brian Charest can be found running alongside inmates at the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) also known as the Norco Prison.

A seasoned marathoner, Charest has been teaching inmates through the Inside Out program, where 10 U of R students come together inside CRC and take a college course with 10 incarcerated students. About four years ago, Charest was asked by one of his CRC students to create a running program. Together with Phil Peng, a Los Angeles County Commissioner, Charest started the Born to Run Club: Learning to Run, Running to Learn, a 13-week class where students explore the intersections of fitness, nutrition, mindfulness, and goal setting. This past August, students in the Born to Run Club completed the inaugural CRC 5K. 

“I was interested from an equity perspective, in doing something that would reach anybody in prison, not just guys who had self-selected to do a college degree while they're inside,” Charest said about starting the program. In addition to the request for this type of class, Charest, a member of the Los Angeles-based Skid Row Running Club that uses running as a form of rehabilitation, was able to run with another group called the 1000 Mile Club at San Quentin prison.  

“I got to run with them (1000 Mile Club) a couple of times, and I talked to the guys who founded it,” Charest said. “That inspired me to think about how to do this work, but it was really driven by this student, Pedro Rivera [at CRC]— once he asked, I felt that I had to give it a shot.”

In addition to the physical component of the class, students read various books including, “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougal, “Eat and Run” by Scott Jurek, and “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins.

“We read these books and have heartfelt discussions about what this helps us understand about ourselves, our goals, and where we want to go in our lives,” Charest said. “Most of the guys that go to a facility like Norco are going to get out and the question is, what are they going to do when they get out? Are they going to be better mentally and physically? Are they going to have the support they need to succeed once they leave the prison setting?

“I feel like the more programming we can have like this that helps a guy focus on his physical and mental well-being and do some tough reflection on where they were in their life and where they want to go, the better off we're going to be as a society,” Charest continued.

The success of the class has been seen on and off the track—with students becoming more physical fit and communicative. The classroom has provided an opportunity for Charest’s students to “be vulnerable” in a space that typically doesn’t allow it.  

“As a man in prison you’re kind of walking around with a mask on all the time, and you can't seem or act vulnerable,” Charest said. “Within this classroom space, they feel like they’re able to talk to each other and talk about things that are personal, that they wouldn't normally do in a group setting. Building that community, building that trust, was really our most fundamental goal for doing the program. The running, in a way, is secondary.”

In looking to the program’s future, Charest sees this type of work as a “prison to school pipeline,” with the School of Education as a hub for those who leave Norco to continue their academic journey.

“This is something that I've talked a lot about with our Dean Nicol Howard, and how we as an institution can better serve that population,” Charest said. “Our mission is about educational justice, and if we want to walk the walk, we need to think about the most vulnerable populations, the most marginalized people in our society. When our education system pushes people out, that's where they go—they go to the justice system.

“This is an opportunity to say, here's a guy who was expelled from school and is in front of me a few years later with so much potential to do good things in the world.”

Learn more about the School of Education. Interested in running with the Born to Run Club in the Norco Prison? Get in touch with Charest at brian_charest@365dafa6.com.