Gathering Knowledge, Shaping Future Career Paths as Prison Walls Fade Away

When Chris is in his economics or communications classes, taking part in discussions, working on assignments or projects, “it’s almost as if I step out of the prison walls for a time,” he says. It’s such a welcome feeling. “Coming to the classroom snaps you out of the negative politics and culture that haunt a person and transports you to a safe place where all those who sit among you feel the same and are trying to better themselves.”

Chris, an individual under the supervision of the Connecticut Department of Correction, is pursuing a University of New Haven associate degree in general studies as part of a collaboration between the Yale Prison Education Initiative (YPEI) at Dwight Hall and the University of New Haven’s Prison Education program.

The program, Chris says, has changed the way he views his life ahead. “I had been out of touch with the classroom for so long, it took me some time to reacquaint myself with it. But once I did, we were like old pals again,” he says.

“The best part for me, beyond the attainment of knowledge, would have to be the normalcy the program brings to an environment like this,” he continues. “We have become a close-knit family, with no one left behind. Academically, we are pushed and encouraged by staff as well as fellow incarcerated scholars to be the best we can be. I see a bachelor’s degree in my future. I’ve become so infatuated with learning I don’t think I’ll ever stop.”

‘Part of this great national movement’

These kinds of possibilities – to learn for the sake of learning and to create future career opportunities – will be open to even more incarcerated persons in Connecticut. This spring the University of New Haven was one of 73 universities nationwide invited by the Department of Education to be part of the third round of the Second Chance Pell Experiment Sites Initiative, a program first launched by the Obama administration to expand access to Federal Pell Grants for incarcerated individuals enrolled in university programs.

“Pell grants used to be available for students in prison until 1994 when access was banned,” says Zelda Roland, Ph.D., who directs the YPEI and the University of New Haven’s Prison Education Program and who is a visiting assistant professor of communications, film, and media studies at the University. “This means we are part of this great national movement bringing back Pell Grants in prison for students who did not have access for so long.”

The University of New Haven is the only private university in Connecticut selected and will be the only participating institution in the state offering a bachelor’s degree to incarcerated students, Dr. Roland says.

‘Tremendous Potential as Students and Scholars’

More than 100 incarcerated individuals applied for 12-15 openings in each cohort, Dr. Roland says. Students have to have earned a high school diploma or GED and need to write an essay as part of the application process. The applications are then reviewed by faculty from the University and Yale.

“We don’t discriminate in our admissions process against sentence length or type of conviction,” says Dr. Roland. “We have students applying who have spent years in prison self-educating, working on skills in reading and writing who have tremendous potential as students and scholars but never had access to any higher education opportunities.”

Dwayne, who is in the associate degree program, was inspired to take part because of his children. “I wanted to change the narrative of my prison experience,” he says. “I wanted to show them that this was not the end, but a new beginning. Adversity happens, but you can always prevail, no matter what the conditions or circumstances are.”

Prevailing, he says, means moving beyond what he thought he could do, such as tackling quantitative analysis, “Math is my weakest subject, but I love challenges, so I will always push myself to succeed,” he says. “These courses keep me occupied, engaged, and out of trouble. They help me constructively fill my time. Have you ever heard the adage 'Ignorance is bliss?' Well, 'knowledge is bliss' as well.”

‘A way to enter community service or social service type of jobs’

This fall, the associate degree program will expand to a federal prison in Danbury, Conn, where it will begin to offer college programming for incarcerated women there. And a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies is slated to launch in the fall for students who have completed the AA, says Michael Rossi, Ph.D., the associate dean of the University of New Haven’s College of Arts and Sciences, who works with Dr. Roland and Vanessa Estimé ’14, the program’s assistant director.

The interdisciplinary studies program will feature a number of different options.

“For example, students can take courses in sociology, race, and ethnic studies and build courses around that as a way to enter community service or social service types of jobs,” Dr. Rossi says. “We want to make sure we are not training students for career pathways they will be restricted from because of their conviction history once they are released from prison,” Dr. Roland adds.

‘We believe it aligns with our mission’

Dr. Rossi says the program exists due in very large part to Dr. Roland’s vision. She was pursuing her Ph.D. at Yale when she worked with students enrolled in Wesleyan University’s Center for Prison Education at Cheshire Correctional Institution and, in 2016, she established the Yale Prison Education Initiative.

Over the years, in conversations with University of New Haven faculty and with staff with the University’s Tow Youth Justice Institute – all of whom she says care deeply about providing educational access and opportunities to people in prison – ideas for a collaboration began to take root.

“One of the biggest surprises for me was that after five minutes of class, you are no longer teaching in a prison. It's just a classroom with no windows. You're the professor, they are the students, and it's the same as any other class.”Patrick Gourley, Ph.D.

“In 2020-2021 we formalized that collaboration, and last April we received a tremendous and transformative investment from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation – a $1.5 million grant – which launched the beginning of what we’ve been able to do together.” Dr. Roland says.

“What’s incredible about the University of New Haven is how much everyone believes in what we are doing, how much interest there is,” Dr. Roland adds. “From the beginning, Dr. Kaplan said 'we need to be doing this. This is urgent and we believe it aligns with our mission.' He got it from the start.”

‘I believe education should be accessible to all’

Dr. Rossi says the program’s faculty – from Yale and the University of New Haven – are incredibly dedicated and they’ve talked with him about what they’ve gained from teaching at the prison.

Bianca Ibarlucea, a graduate of the Yale School of Art, and a visiting University of New Haven faculty member, co-taught graphic design with Anežka Minaříková, and together they organized “{#289 128}: More Than a Number,” a Seton Gallery exhibition of work of students enrolled in graphic design courses across UNH campuses. Students read English Professor Randall Horton’s, poetry, and pieces about his own incarceration, and created posters – art – from his words. Dr. Horton is a National Endowment of the Arts Fellow, an award-winning poet and memoirist, and is part of the YPEI Oversight Committee.

Professor Ibarlucea has long thought about how much more expansive and inclusive the world of graphic design needs to be and that, she says, begins with pedagogy and making sure that people who are in the justice system have a chance to have their voices included. “What good does inclusive and expansive pedagogy do for de-centering the Western canon if people impacted by the justice system aren't permitted to contribute to the conversation?” she asks.

“I believe education should be accessible to all and teaching inside made me realize it is important for me to work with intergenerational students who come from all types of backgrounds.”

‘It’s the same as any other class’

Patrick Gourley, an associate professor of economics, taught microeconomics at the prison last fall and was so taken by the experience that he encourages more faculty members to consider teaching in the program. “You have to set your expectations properly,” he notes.

“Sometimes the facility will be under lockdown. Other times it might take 20 minutes to get through security. Having patience and recognizing the bigger picture is key.”

Working with students who are extremely engaged, who ask deep, thoughtful questions, makes it “a great experience,” he says. “One of the biggest surprises for me was that after five minutes of class, you are no longer teaching in a prison. It's just a classroom with no windows. You're the professor, they are the students, and it's the same as any other class.”

‘This Reaffirms That Personhood within Me’

For Justin, who is working toward his associate degree, the courses, the faculty, and Dr. Roland are “a daily lifeline.

“Prison has a way of making you become a prisoner,” he says. “No matter your will to remain an individual, prison increasingly strips you of that. On a daily basis, this [program] reaffirms that personhood within me, something that counteracts the constant reminders that you are where you belong.”

Justin says that when he first arrived in prison, he had no anticipation, expectation, or excitement about his future, only “institutionalization separation of who I was and who I could become.”

But now, he says, “every course, every syllabus, every textbook, mid-term, final, credit are all underlining values to the true value that this community creates: Hope.”