YPSILANTI, MI — Nicole Ortiz-Garcia, 39, and Jacara Moore, 27, woke up hours before dawn to start their days as Eastern Michigan University students.

With their studies, came promise, hope.

For them, college was the path out of prison.

“When I first was incarcerated, I was very unsure of what my life would end up being after that,” Ortiz-Garcia, 39, of southwest Detroit said. “During that time and after, when you lose everything and you do go to prison, your perspective isn’t so great.”

Ortiz-Garcia said college enrollment gave her “a sense of personality, pride and something to work towards.”

She and Moore benefit from the Eastern Michigan University College in Prison program, which offers inmates at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility at 3201 Bemis Road near Ypsilanti the

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