Tag: 2024 Marshall Scholarship

After two years of delivering creative writing workshops in the Cook County Jail, University of Chicago student Ethan Ostrow recalls one particular incident.

He remembers one participant telling him about being charged with manslaughter after killing his best buddy in a drunk driving accident.

“Watching him blink back tears while telling us how deeply he missed his friend and how badly he wanted to make things right, I wondered in what world jailing him means justice,” said Ostrow, a fourth-year student in the College.

Experiences like this one have made Ostrow a staunch opponent of municipal and federal incarceration.

On December 11, it was reported publicly that Ostrow had been awarded the coveted Marshall Scholarship, which will allow him to study at the University of Oxford, where he will further his work on jail reform by pursuing a doctoral degree in socio-legal studies next fall.

Since 1986, he has been the 29th person linked with UChicago to receive a Marshall Scholarship, which rewards academic brilliance, leadership, and ambassadorial potential.

According to Ostrow, “if the goal of incarceration is to correct human behavior, the institution of prison is a failure.”

His determination is grounded on a grim reality: 90 percent of incarcerated inmates in Chicago re-offend within a year, which Ostrow attributes to prisons’ failure to rehabilitate. His ultimate goal is to make restorative justice a viable alternative to incarceration. Restorative justice is a way for repairing harm that employs discussion to create accountability and reconciliation.

According to Ostrow, the Marshall Scholarship demonstrates that conceiving creative solutions to harm other than criminalization is feasible. Furthermore, he stated that the opportunity to examine the United Kingdom’s historical national adoption of restorative justice will educate him how to intervene and institutionalize a similar system in the United States.

“Ethan’s willingness to question the status quo and apply problem solving to the complexities of our justice system is inspiring, and exemplifies so many of the unique qualities that distinguish students here at UChicago,” said Melina Hale, dean of the College. “We are so proud of Ethan, and this well deserved honor.”

“Ethan’s courage of conviction and his integrity have earned him one of the most prestigious national fellowships available to American students,” said Nichole Fazio, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Research and Scholars Programs and Executive Director of the College Center for Research and Fellowships. His nomination as a Marshall Scholar validates his remarkable leadership and future promise as he continues to advocate for others’ rights. We are proud of Ethan for his obvious compassion and his perseverance in seeking what is good and true.”

Ostrow, a Law, Letters & Society major from San Francisco, will complete his bachelor’s degree in the spring, as well as a master’s degree in political science.

When he returns from Oxford, he intends to seek a law degree and continue building relationships with politicians, law enforcement, and restorative justice practitioners to complement the ones he formed in the United Kingdom.

Ostrow, along with fellow student Harley Pomper, has published a number of op-eds, including one in the Chicago Sun-Times last spring that drew public and media attention to a paper restriction at the CCJ enforced after drug-laced paper was discovered.

Concerned that the policy denied prisoners access to reading materials and made it difficult for lawyers to effectively represent their incarcerated clients, both students sought the advice of Jamie Kalven, an award-winning investigative journalist and founder of the Invisible Institute, who met with them for several months before assisting them in landing their opinion piece in the Sun-Times.

After the op-ed was published, both students’ security clearances were refused, thereby ending their capacity to give seminars at the penitentiary.

“The sheriff’s department retaliated against Ethan and his collaborator for the op-ed by denying them security clearances to participate in the writing workshop in the jail that they help lead,” Kalven said. “A disappointment, but also, I expect, a defining moment early in a career in which Ethan is destined to make significant contributions to criminal justice reform.”

Ostrow has also authored research papers stating that federal institutions fall short of their public safety goals. Most notably, he was a co-author of a breakthrough report on pretrial detention from the University of Chicago Law School’s Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, which examined the flaws in the federal jailing system.

He said he has witnessed firsthand how incarceration can upend lives after working at and observing circumstances at the CCJ and the Cook County bond court.

“Conducting writing workshops alongside people experiencing incarceration has shown me how mass incarceration progressively detracts from our collective safety, economically and politically disenfranchises entire communities, and exacerbates our nation’s mental health and housing crises,” he said.

According to Ostrow, his participation in and analysis of the efficacy of restorative justice has demonstrated that there is a compelling alternative to the criminal judicial system as it now exists.

He intends to eventually deconstruct the jail pipeline by constructing an offramp and working toward a future in which restorative justice is used to address the socioeconomic origins of violence, rebuild interpersonal connections, and develop engaged, supportive communities.

“I can’t describe the extent of my gratitude for the myriad of people in my life who have encouraged me to advocate for healing and restoration and against institutional violence, including my mentors, teachers, professors, and friends inside and outside of prison,” Ostrow said. “Finally, I want to thank my family for their love, support and inspiration.”

Ostrow was nominated by the University and got application assistance from the College Center for Research and Fellowships, which guides candidates through rigorous processes for nationally competitive fellowships. The Marshall, Mitchell, and Rhodes faculty nomination committee provides further assistance; its continued contribution is a crucial component of student achievement at the national level.