Fifth in a series
By DEBORAH E. LANS
GHENT–As Brian Fischer, former commissioner of the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC), says, virtually everyone incarcerated in a state facility will be released at some point. (The rate is 95%.) Therefore, “running programs that address and change the trajectory of the incarcerated just makes sense.”
Further, while statistics vary, it is clear that within three years of release between one-half and two-thirds of all incarcerated persons re-offend. That rate drops to 2% for graduates of the college in prison programs coordinated by Hudson Link, such as the partnership among it, SUNY and Columbia-Greene Community College (C-GCC), and offered by the Bard Prison Initiative.
The human cost of incarceration is massive. Families are disrupted, with children separated from a parent and income lost to the family. Children whose parents are incarcerated are more likely to be incarcerated themselves, as well as to suffer depression and poverty. Not only do the incarcerated confront violence and emotional trauma while in prison but on release they face enormous barriers to finding housing and employment. (More on “reentry” in a future article.)
The financial costs are likewise enormous. Looking simply at the direct costs of running prisons, the country spends more than $80 billion/year on incarceration. In New York state, $3.4 billion was budgeted for 2023, or, more than $500,000/year per incarcerated person.Against those costs, the purely economic benefits of reducing recidivism seem obvious. A study by the Rand Corporation reached the “conservative estimate” that every dollar invested in prison education programs (not limited to college programs) saves taxpayers “between $4 and $5 in three-year reincarceration costs.”
When the fact that college in prison programs return individuals to society who can not only earn for themselves and their families but moreover often enter the helping professions, the economic calculus seems even more obvious; these programs benefit not only the incarcerated and their families but society as a whole. Hudson Link believes that 85% of its graduates are employed in the social services.
The “downstream” benefits are also plain. At the simplest level, because graduates are less likely to reoffend, all the collateral justice system costs of criminal conduct – such as policing, court operations and health care – not to mention the costs to victims, are also reduced.Finally, the generational impacts are significant, not only in reducing the numbers of the future incarcerated but also in keeping families out of poverty and inspiring younger generations to follow an educational path.
Among the adult incarcerated students are many who speak of sharing with their own children aspects of their studies or their respective post-graduation plans. The history of funding college programs in prisons has been a roller coaster. Before 1994, federal Pell grants and, before 1995, New York TAP grants, were available to incarcerated students. (Both programs provide non-loan tuition assistance on a needs basis.)
Then, “tough on crime” legislation discontinued the grants for the incarcerated. According to a DOC study, in the spring of 1995, there were 3,445 incarcerated individuals enrolled in 25 college programs across 46 institutions. One year after the federal and state funding was discontinued, the numbers plummeted to 256 students in 6 programs at 7 institutions. Since then, programs have relied on support from private donors and foundations to stay afloat.Legislation reinstated the eligibility of incarcerated persons for both federal and state grants effective in 2023.
Indeed, public attitudes to incarceration have shifted significantly since the mid-1990s. In the first national poll of crime survivors that explored their attitudes to criminal justice policy, conducted in 2016, the Alliance for Safety and Justice found “overwhelming support – even higher than among the general public – for rehabilitative programming, alternatives to incarceration, and shorter sentences, as well as greater investments in education, mental health treatment jobs programs, and drug treatment.”In New York, according to Rachel Sander, executive director of SUNY’s Office of Higher Education in Prison, the state’s goal is to have a college program in every correctional facility in the state. In fact, New York is one of the few states to take a “systems approach” to such education. Ms. Sander points out that an incarcerated person’s opportunity to participate should not depend on “the luck of the draw, on which facility he or she is in and whether it has a program and not on whether he or she is transferred during his or her sentence from one facility to another.”
Moreover, Ms. Sander says that since some 60% of incarcerated persons are eligible for college programs, in that they have a high school degree or a GED, it is a matter of both equity and commonsense that the transformative effects of such programs be widely available. As she says, the programs “change the lives even of those who do not go home, change relationships in prison, and have a generational impact” by empowering the incarcerated to act as role models who inspire their children to see the value of education.Those who teach in the programs say they gain as well.
Stacey Hills is one of the 29 faculty members from C-GCC who work in their programs at Greene, Greenhaven and Stormville Correctional Facilities. She says the students are the most focused and hard-working she teaches. Students come to class well-prepared, homework done. Indeed, more than half of students in SUNY’s programs, according to a recent study, attain A+, A or A- in their classes.
Because the internet is not permitted in prison, learning is complicated. Teachers must rely on “old-fashioned” tools, like chalkboards, overhead projectors and paper. There are computer labs where students can type papers, a library of textbooks and a secure platform that allows for tablets in cells, but even communicating with students is strictly controlled and scheduled by the DOC. Often, scheduling classes is a challenge, due to the unavailability of classrooms or faculty. Students sometimes must study late at night, when the institution finally quiets down.
Course selection is heavily skewed to the humanities, social sciences and business. Professor Hills says that getting to know each student as an individual “takes you out of your bubble and shows you what you don’t know.” There may be 20 students in a classroom, from their mid-20s to their 60s. Each has his or her own story, and students and professor alike all learn from one another.
In a commencement address given at Greene Correctional Facility in June 2024, graduate Kevin Barksdale (who is still incarcerated) spoke about the gifts received from each of his professors, and most especially “a learning environment where everyone’s voice mattered; it feels great to be heard and respected.”
Mr. Barksdale acknowledged that the C-GCC-Hudson Link program was very hard. “Many expect us to return home physically stronger from working out and lifting weights. While that is important, I feel it is second to mental health. I’ve lost many friends and family members, some to death, and others to the space built between us by the vast veil separating prison and the other world.” But, in the college program, Mr. Barksdale said, he found a community that “worked together to get through these hard times…endured a shared struggle to get to where we are today. We’ve made the best of our situation and must continue to do so, especially when we are free.”
Mr. Barksdale closed his address with what could be a comment both on the meaning of, and the historically challenging path of, college in prison programs: “I’d like to share an Ancient Chinese proverb: ‘The best time to plant a tree is…20 years ago. The second-best time is now.’ Again, I’m far from a holy roller, but I’d like to say, keep faith – especially in yourself. No matter who you are, or what you’ve been through, it’s never too late to change. We are all living proof of that.”
To contact reporter Deborah Lans, email deborahlans@icloud.com.
