Advancing Higher Ed for System-Impacted Communities 

Ashton coordinates collaborative statewide efforts to make higher education more accessible to incarcerated and system-impacted students in support of EJP’s mission to build a model college in prison program. EJP is the only college-in-prison program in Illinois and one of very few programs across the country with a dedicated policy and research division 

Since joining EJP in 2022, Ashton has built the organization’s policy and research division from the ground up. Her work expands EJP’s mission beyond the classroom—coordinating coalitions, supporting reentry pathways, and driving policy change to dismantle the structural barriers that block access to education for system-impacted students. 

At the state level, Ashton organizes policy initiatives like the Freedom to Learn Campaign, which pushes for legislation to protect and expand access to higher education in prison. This includes drafting model bills, supporting enhanced data collection and analysis, and fostering cross-agency collaboration where little had existed before. Within the University of Illinois System, she focuses on internal policy reform—from admissions policies that screen out applicants based on criminal history to hiring practices that marginalize people with records. Through a new initiative called the Prison-to-Gown Pathway, EJP supports formerly incarcerated students pursuing studies at the University of Illinois from application through graduation. 

But her vision doesn’t stop at policy. A key piece of Ashton’s work is public education—demystifying the policy process and equipping people to advocate for the changes they want to see. “Our students are at the core of everything we do,” she said. “Through our policy discussion group at Danville Correctional Center, we equip them with the tools to take action on any issue they care about.” 

Toward Systemic Healing 

Ashton Klekamp came to the law through a deep commitment to care, healing, and community. At Pitzer College, she designed her own major in neuropsychology and holistic healing, driven by a desire to create more compassionate approaches to addiction and recovery. “I thought I might work in a research lab and develop better treatments for substance use disorders,” she said. But a volunteer opportunity during her undergraduate years—teaching in a prison classroom—reshaped Ashton’s understanding of systems of power, opportunity, and exclusion.  

Then a neuroscience major focused on addiction treatment, she quickly noticed a stark disparity. The same struggles that had led her loved ones from white, middle-class backgrounds to outpatient recovery programs were funneling her incarcerated students—most of them people of color—into the criminal legal system. “Once you’re pulled into the system,” she said, “you remain sort of in its grasp.” The experience shifted her sense of what kind of change she wanted to pursue. She began to see healing and justice as deeply connected—and she recognized that systems, not just individuals, needed care and transformation. 

That perspective deepened after college, when Ashton received a Fulbright to study Uganda’s prison system. Unlike researchers who focused on gaps or failures, she was drawn to what the country was doing well: community-based sentencing, reintegration programs, and notably low recidivism. It was during her time in Uganda that she decided to apply to law school. Georgetown, known for its deep commitment to public interest and its leading human rights programming, was her top choice. “There wasn’t one ‘aha’ moment,” she said. “I just realized law school could make me a stronger writer, speaker, and advocate—so I could help make the change I care about.”  

From Learning to Leading 

At Georgetown, Ashton gravitated toward real-world learning experiences—externships, internships, and clinics—that allowed her to engage directly with the issues she cared about. “Those off-campus experiences were valuable,” she explained, “not just to increase my skills, but to build a network and connect with mentors who had taken their legal degrees in their own direction.” Classroom learning sharpened her critical thinking, but it was through Georgetown’s wealth of exceptional real-world learning opportunities, she said, that she learned how to use those tools in practice. 

These experiences also helped her clarify the kind of lawyer she wanted to be. Ashton embraced a movement lawyering approach—one rooted in collaboration with directly impacted communities and guided by the belief that lasting change comes from shifting power, not just policy. Whether through her clinical work, her involvement in reentry programs, or her experiences in other off-campus placements, Ashton stayed closely connected to causes that motivated her. For her, law school wasn’t a pause from that work—it was a chance to develop the practical skills and connections that would strengthen it. After graduating from Georgetown, Ashton secured a two-year fellowship at what is now Impact for Equity in Chicago. There, she worked across issue areas—from supporting treatment courts to advancing public housing litigation—while also helping launch the Illinois Coalition for Higher Education in Prison Programs. The fellowship became a crucial bridge between law school and her long-term goals, allowing her to deepen her policy expertise and strengthen her ties to the community she hoped to serve. When EJP received new funding to build out its policy and research division, Ashton was a natural fit. Her previous coalition work and policy experience helped lay the groundwork for the role she now holds as the division’s director. 

Shifting Power to Shape Policy 

For Ashton, policy work is about more than fixing broken systems—it’s about shifting who holds the power to imagine and build something better. That means centering the voices of people who have lived through incarceration, educational exclusion, and systemic violence—not just as storytellers or symbols, but as decision-makers, strategists, and architects of change. “A lot of the worst policies we have were created in vacuums—without input from the people most impacted,” she said. “So, when I put forth a recommendation, I want to make sure it’s informed by and accountable to the communities I serve.” 

Ashton is also guided by an abolitionist lens—one that supports education as long as prisons exist, but resists reforms that expand carceral systems. “We’re very intentional that our work doesn’t increase the size or budget of departments of corrections,” she explained. “Instead, we try to support the kind of freedom dreaming that helps people imagine a different future.” 

That future is already taking shape. Former EJP students now hold leadership roles in state and city government. Others are enrolling in the University of Illinois system—a first in the program’s 17-year history. For Ashton, these moments are more than milestones. “There’s nothing better than sitting at a table led by one of our alumni,” she said. 

Joy, Community, and a Collective Purpose 

Even as her work focuses on systems and policy change, Ashton stays grounded in the relationships and values that brought her to this work in the first place. Outside of her professional work, she finds joy in her pets, her soon-to-arrive baby, and a community of advocates—many of whom are also close friends. She continues to participate in grassroots organizing and sees her job not as a standalone career, but as one thread in a larger movement. 

“Being involved in movement work makes it feel like what I do is part of something bigger,” she said. “Not just a siloed effort to fix one policy—it’s about imagining what’s possible and building it together.” 

 

Written by Cameron Mulrooney 

Edited by Michelle Liu