Kim Kardashian Includes GU Prisons and Justice Initiative in Documentary, Visits Class

Screenshot of Kim Kardashian and students in a Zoom class

An unsuspecting class of students was joined by Kim Kardashian West for 45 minutes during a virtual Georgetown Prisons and Justice Initiative (PJI) class Tuesday night, less than a week before her documentary featuring PJI airs this Sunday night on Oxygen.

Kardashian joined 15 Georgetown students for PJI Director Marc Howard’s virtual course on the Forgotten Humanity of Prisoners, which encourages graduating seniors to explore deep questions about themselves and to connect with the humanity of a forgotten element of society.

Morale Boost

Philippa O’Hagan (C’20), a recently graduated government major from New York City who hopes to attend law school one day, was thrilled about the celebrity joining the class.

“Kim’s visit to our Zoom class was not only the morale boost we all needed but a powerful example of what this class is all about,” says O’Hagan, who hopes to one day work on prison justice reform. “The course is specifically for seniors preparing to step into the real world and their careers. Kim, with a long and wide-ranging career in her own right, is now at the age of 39 pivoting.”

“She is cognizant of her celebrity and her platform and is using it in her quest to become a lawyer and focus on criminal law,” the Georgetown student adds. “It was inspiring, and made us all newly excited again about life after college even in the midst of these uncertain times.”

The course normally takes place at the DC Jail with incarcerated students – who also receive credits for their work – in an unusual “mixed” course that is part of PJI’s highly successful Prison Scholars Program.

Because of the COVID-19 crisis, this week’s virtual class session instead took place with recently released scholars from the program.

The Justice Project

The media personality and actress’ documentary – Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project – airs at 7 p.m. on April 5.

“It kind of follows my journey of me feeling, I don’t want to say judgmental, but I want to say not really understanding and not really willing to take the time to understand other people’s perspectives,” Kardashian said in the class.

She also said she really didn’t understand the plight of the incarcerated until “I started to go and visit prisons and hear a completely different side.”

Endorsing and Advocating

Momolu Stewart, a Prison Scholars Program alumnus recently released from the DC Jail who took part in the class, and who will be featured in The Justice Project, told Kardashian, “I appreciate your endorsing and advocating and helping me to be free.”

“Because I can imagine being in there right now, and it wouldn’t be a very fortunate situation for me,” he said.

He added that he’s now enjoying his freedom and giving advice to younger men who might be considering the same bad decisions he had made and be able to learn from his experience.

Praise for PJI

This past July, Kardashian visited DC Jail and the Prison Scholars Program to gather material for the documentary.

“I speak so highly of [the Prison Scholars Program because] … it’s so crazy to me that there [are] not other jails that have this system in place,” she said during the Tuesday night class. “… it makes no sense why it wouldn’t be everywhere.”

After the class, Kardashian tweeted that “It was so great to speak to Dr. Marc Howard as he teaches his course at Georgetown University. Some of the men on the chat were previously incarcerated for decades like Momolou Stewart, who recently was released from prison.”

Screenshot of Tweet by Kim Kardashian West showing students and formerly incarcerated individuals reading “It was so great to speak to Dr. Marc Howard as he teaches his course at Georgetown University. Some of the men on the chat were previously incarcerated for decades like Momolou Stewart, who recently was released from prison.” in a virtual class with Marc Howard.