A Prison-to-School Pipeline: Andres Idarraga at TEDxMosesBrownSchool

Andres Idarraga was incarcerated as a young man but went on to graduate from Brown University and Yale Law School after his release. He attended Moses Brown School from 1993-1994. Currently, Andres is president and co-founder of the Transcending Through Education Foundation (TTEF), a non-profit that provides educational resources to people incarcerated in, and transitioning out of, the Rhode Island prison system. He is also a practicing lawyer at a leading law firm in Florida. Recently, Andres was named to the Lawyers of Color's Inaugural Hot List, which recognizes early-to midcareer attorneys under 40 who are excelling in the legal profession. During college and law school, Andres worked on various educational issues and initiatives. At Brown, on behalf of the National Urban Debate League, he promoted the benefits of debate programs in inner city schools. At Yale Law, he served as a student director of the Education Adequacy Clinic. In 2010, the clinic won a major victory in the Connecticut Supreme Court that established a right to an adequate education under the state constitution for all Connecticut schoolchildren. He also co-founded the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project at Yale, which sends law students to New Haven area high schools to teach a year-long course in constitutional law.
Andres has also worked on prisoner reentry issues. He was part of the Rhode Island Right to Vote campaign, which was successful in ending felony disenfranchisement in Rhode Island. In 2010, he testified before Congress in support of the Democracy Restoration Act, which would end felony
disenfranchisement in federal elections. To find out more about TTEF, visit transcendingthrougheducation.org.
More about Moses Brown: www.mosesbrown.org
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