Education Superintendent Swain retires

December 27, 2024

Shannon Swain, Superintendent of CDCR's Office of Correctional Education.

Shannon Swain, Superintendent of the Office of Correctional Education (OCE), Division of Rehabilitative Programs (DRP), will retire Dec 30.

Swain was sworn in on June 2, 2014, as Deputy Superintendent and two years later began her service as Superintendent for OCE.

Amy Casias, Director for DRP, sent out a letter announcing Swain’s retirement.

“She has made significant contributions to the culture and advancement of OCE and incarcerated persons and always committed to make OCE the best correctional education system in the world,” Casias wrote.

In her retirement Swain said she will be taking advantage of the time to spend with and care for her family.

Effective Dec. 31, 2024, Genevie Candelaria will assume the role of Superintendent, Office of Correctional Education, Division of Rehabilitative Programs. Genevie has been Assistant Chief of Education since 2020.

Inside CDCR caught up with Swain ahead of her retirement. She shared her journey and the work she has done within CDCR’s education system.

Q&A with Shannon Swain, OCE Superintendent

When and how did you find your passion for education within the prison system?

Superintendent Shannon Swain speaks into a microphone. — Shannon Swain speaking at a 2022 conference.

When I was 19, in my second year of university, I took an internship at a halfway house, a community transition program for folks transitioning out of county jail. On my first day, I interviewed a resident and asked how he survived on the streets, as he had been homeless. He explained he and his friend would wait in the bushes outside a McDonald’s. (At that time,) the unpurchased food was thrown away at the end of the day. He would then go dumpster diving in order to eat. This person had no high school diploma. (He) had never been successful in school and had never had any counseling or intervention of any kind. This single interaction sparked in me] a deep commitment to try to effect changes in the system.

How important is it to provide a safe and trusting learning environment to the incarcerated population?

The majority of people attending school inside prison have failed in the traditional education system. Many feel that school was a traumatic and frightening experience for them. For folks in our academic, library, career technical, and recreational programs, without trust and a feeling of safety, they will simply shut down.

This is why OCE puts so much time and effort into transforming classrooms, libraries, workshops, and yards. (We turn them) into welcoming places, where there are activities to engage the mind and body in a positive way. Instruction is differentiated to make sure participants are learning new skills in a modality that makes sense to them.

There are a lot of different activities that involve hands-on or project-based learning. There are computers for students who learn best that way, cooperative learning strategies that encourage students to work together. (Meanwhile, there are also) tools and tasks in our Career and Technical Education programs, for example, allowing students to actively engage in ways that work for them.

What message would you want to share to the public regarding education within institutions?

I would want to public to know that prisons are active learning places, where credentialed teachers work in accredited schools, providing opportunities and serving the population from grade school to grad school. Learning never ends, and as time goes on, I see great things for the teachers, students, patrons, and population we serve.

There will be ever-increasing integration of technology into instruction and learning, and the OCE leaders will continue to embrace best practices that will help the incarcerated population to evolve into engaged citizens who are able to contribute to their communities, be they behind or outside the walls.

Even after you are gone, how would you hope to see the education department grow within CDCR?

As I leave CDCR, I know that I am leaving the best correctional education system in the world, in the best correctional system in the world. I would hope people remember the only way to learn anything is to fail at something. It is what we do and how we respond to that failure that defines us. I would hope folks are gentle to themselves and others and treat each other with kindness.

Story by Ashton Harris, information officer
Office of Public and Employee Communications

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