Schools Offering College Courses to Inmates - New York

Rising Hope, Inc

Correctional Facility: Sing Sing, Green Haven, Fishkill and Woodburne Correctional Facilities

College/University/Organization Partnership: Nyack College, Nyack, New York

City, State: New York

Year Founded: 1995

Founders: Rev. Dr. George W. (Bill) Webber and Sr. Marian Bohen, Ph.D.

Population Served: Incarcerated people who possess a high school diploma or its equivalent, want to study at the college level, and wish to engage in some form of ministry or community service while incarcerated or after release.

Number of Students: 75-100 per year

Programs Offered: The Certificate in Ministry and Human Services Program (CMHS) is a one-year course of study that uses the experiences of marginalized populations, particularly those based on race, economic status and gender, to help shape the curriculum. The curriculum includes, but is not limited to: English Composition, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Contemporary Theology, Ethics, History of Christianity, Sociology of Religion, World Religions, Introduction to Counseling, Introduction to Social Work and Homiletics. The school year is 2 semesters, 15 weeks each, 5 courses per semester. It is not a correspondence course. All classes are taught on cite in the prisons.

Degrees Offered: Certificate in Ministry and Human Services. Rising Hope is not an accredited college institution, but Nyack College welcomes Rising Hope alumni to enroll in the Operational Management Program of Nyack College where they will receive full credit for all Rising Hope courses passed with C or better. Other local colleges have also accepted Rising Hope course credits toward a BA degree.

Number of Graduates with Degrees: More than 1,300 students have graduated since 1995

Funding: Rising Hope, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3 corp. sustained entirely by private donations; it does not receive any government funding. RHI does not charge tuition and provides free textbooks to the students. The professors volunteer their time.

Contacts: Bob Lukey at Rising Hope (914) 276-7848, or RisingHopeInc@optonline.net

Program Website: http://www.risinghope.org/

Program Description: Rising Hope, Inc. is an all-volunteer organization providing incarcerated people with one year of post-secondary education called the Certificate in Ministry and Human Services (CMHS) Program. It operates in four New York State prisons; Sing Sing, Green Haven, Fishkill and Woodbourne. Rising Hope is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation sustained entirely by private donations and does not receive any government funding.

The CMHS Program is an opportunity to join a community of educators and students dedicated to expanding the horizons of scholarship, spiritual maturity and ethical conduct even while within prison walls.

Rising Hope, Inc., provides educational programs for men in prison in order to awaken them to their innate potential to learn and grow intellectually, psychologically, spiritually, morally, socially, and vocationally, and to equip them to work in the helping professions for the benefit of themselves, their families and others both in prison and after release.

What Makes this Program Special / Unique Features to this Program: While the program is based upon the curriculum taught during the first year at many Christian seminaries, it is open to incarcerated students of all faith traditions or without religious affiliation. The material is studied from an academic perspective without proselytizing. The program’s goal is not to tell the students what their faith should be but to help them grow as they pursue their personal faith journey.

New York Theological Seminary Master’s of Professional Studies Program

Program Website: http://www.nyts.edu/the-sing-sing-program

Contacts: Dale Irvin (President of NYTS), dirvin@nyts.edu

Program Description: In 1981, Ed Muller, a Pastor and chaplain at Green Haven Prison and Karel Boersma, a pastor and volunteer at Green Haven, came to Dr. Webber with a request that the seminary create a curricular extension program for incarcerated Christians and Muslims of strong faith who had a desire to provide pastoral care inside of the prison. They claimed that pastoral care needs were so great that outside chaplains could not address them all. Dr. Webber agreed and collaborated with Rev. Dr. Earl Moore, Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections, responsible for Ministerial and Family Services, and an NYTS alumnus, to create a Master in Professional Studies (MPS) degree for incarcerated people.

The degree is accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada and registered with New York State Department of Education.

The MPS is open to all students who held a bachelor’s degree and references from chaplains and other incarcerated people attesting to their religious commitment. Holders of the MPS degree became chaplain’s assistants throughout the prison system, augmenting pastoral counseling, teaching and social services in the system. The MPS program has a recidivism rate of under ten percent. It continues to turn around the lives of not only the sixteen or so students each year, but also the prisoners they serve while incarcerated and the people they serve once they are released. Since its inception in 1982, more than 400 men have graduated; almost half have been released and continue to serve the community.

Degrees Offered: Certificate in Ministry and Human Services. Students earn between 24 and 33 credit hours.

Programs Offered: The Certificate in Ministry and Human Services Program (CMHS) includes, but is not limited to the following courses: English composition, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Introduction to the Christian Bible, Contemporary Theology, Introduction to Ethics, History of Christianity I & II, Sociology of Religion, World Religions, Pastoral Counseling, Introduction to Social Work, Homiletics, and Child Development also frequently offered. School year is 2 semesters of15 weeks each, with 5 courses per semester. All courses are required to earn a certificate.

Unique Features: It is the only interfaith religious education program in the New York State prison system.

Headquarters: NY

Correctional Facilities Served: Sing Sing, Green Haven, Arthurkill, Fishkill, Mid-Orange, Eastern, and Woodbourne Correctional Facilities

Population Served: Incarcerated people possessing a high school diploma or it’s equivalent and are engaged in ministry or community service while incarcerated. All faiths are welcome.

Number of Students: Approximately 120 enrolled per year

Graduates to Date: More than 1,000 students have earned a certificate since 1995

Year Founded: 1995

Founders: Rev. Dr. George W. (Bill) Webber

College/University/Organization Partnerships: Nyack College

Funding: As a non-profit 501(c)3 sustained entirely by private donations, RHI does not receive any government funding. RHI does not charge tuition, professors volunteer their time. Textbooks are lent to the students.

Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program (Poughkeepsie)

Contacts: Vassar professors Mary Shanley (shanley@vassar.edu) and Eileen Leonard (eileonard@vassar.edu). The Inside-Out Program at Taconic is coordinated through Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison

Program Description: The two professors, along with 10 Vassar students, traveled from Poughkeepsie to the medium security women’s prison in Bedford Hills, Westchester County, once a week during the spring 2009 semester to join with 12 incarcerated students for a two-and-a-half hour class. The success of the course led Shanley and Leonard to teach the course again in fall 2009, this time with 10 Vassar students and 13 Taconic students enrolled. The course, once again, will be offered during the fall 2010 semester. Vassar students have shown high interest in the course: for every 10 students accepted to enroll, 20 must be turned away.

The idea for the course began when Shanley and Leonard investigated existing educational programs in correctional facilities in New York State after they had taken the training program for Temple University’s “Inside-Out” program in Philadelphia. Temple’s program trains faculty to offer college courses, enrolling students from both inside and outside prison.

Vassar saw Shanley’s and Leonard’s course as a way to fulfill its commitment to equal educational opportunity and to put into practice the proven use of education to reduce recidivism. Taconic Correctional Facility, which already offered classes for college credit, seemed to be a good fit for this new program. Shanley and Leonard’s determination, coupled with the support of Vassar, the DOCS, and the TCF, made the program a reality.

Degrees Offered: All students receive course credit; incarcerated students are not enrolled in a degree-granting program

Programs Offered: “Gender, Social Problems and Social Change in the Contemporary United States” takes an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing social policy, allowing students to investigate social issues and movements spanning criminal justice, education, race, gender, women’s rights, gay rights, and access to health care, and generating lively classroom discussion. Students are required to give oral presentations and to write weekly response papers, as well as participate in large and small group discussions, techniques that proved to be highly effective in engaging students and fostering interaction.

Unique Features: The course marks the first time that the DOCS in New York State has permitted a mixed classroom of traditional college students with the incarcerated as part of a curriculum for college credit.

Headquarters: Poughkeepsie, NY

Correctional Facilities Served: Taconic Correctional Facility for Women

Population Served: Incarcerated women and Vassar students

Number of Students: 12 incarcerated students and 10 Vassar students per year

Graduates to Date: N/A

Year Founded: 2009

Founders: Lori Pompa (founder of Inside-Out model)

College/University/Organization Partnerships: Vassar College

Funding: No state funds are used for the program at Taconic; federal funds are used for Vassar students who meet grant eligibility requirements. Vassar waived tuition for the Taconic students and granted credit to all students who completed the course successfully.

Program Description: Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison provides college education, life skills and re-entry support to incarcerated men and women to help them make a positive impact on their own lives, their families and communities, resulting in lower rates of recidivism, incarceration and poverty.

Hudson Link was founded when state and federal funding for college education in prisons stopped. In 1998, the incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility reached out to religious and academic volunteers for help. Under the leadership of Dr. Anne Reissner, Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison was founded to restore college education at Sing Sing through private funding.

Hudson Link began offering courses in June 2000 with 22 students taught by Nyack College faculty. In 2011 seventeen men graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Organizational Management. That year, the program enrolled 35 students through a new partnership with Mercy College. Hudson Link students take the same rigorous curriculum as the students that are on campus with their college partners.

Hudson Link’s success at Sing Sing enabled expansion of their educational programs to 3 additional correctional facilities since 1998. Hudson Link’s strategic plan is to continue expand their programs in the facilities they currently operate in, and replicate their educational programs at additional facilities as funding allows.

Degrees Offered: Associates Degree in Liberal Arts, Associate and Bachelor’s Degrees in Behavioral Science and Bachelor Degree in Organizational Management

Programs Offered: Pre-college coursework including english composition, literature and mathematics to help prepare incarcerated men and women to enter our college degree granting programs. College coursework in behavioral and social sciences, mathematics, english and literature, business, organizational management and liberal arts

Unique Features: Hudson Link has expanded its programming to include a pre-college program to prepare potential students for the rigors of obtaining a college degree. Hudson Link Alumni work as tutors and mentors to the pre-college students.

In addition to traditional educational programs, Hudson Link offers a monthly life skills seminar series to help prepare their students and graduates for their eventual release from prison.

Hudson Link’s support does not stop inside the prison. They run a strong Alumni Program to help transition their men and women back into their communities through support, job readiness, mentoring and links to other re-entry services.

Hudson Link’s commitment to helping their men and women achieve success in their families and communities has led to a 0% recidivism rate for released graduates.

Headquarters: Ossining, NY

Correctional Facilities Served: Fishkill, Sing Sing and Sullivan Correctional Facilities for Men and Taconic Correctional Facility for Women

Population Served: Men and women who are incarcerated; requirements include either a GED or high school diploma. We also assist Hudson Link graduates after they are released from prison.

Number of Students: Over 225 students

Graduates to Date: Since 2001, Nyack and Mercy Colleges have granted 237 degrees (139 Bachelors and 98 Associates to Hudson Link students). In 2011 there were 25 graduates at Sing Sing and 12 graduates at Fishkill.

Year Founded: 1998

Founders: Dr. Anne Reissner

College/University/Organization Partnerships: Mercy College, Nyack College, Vassar College and Sullivan County Community College

Funding: Privately funded through donations from individuals, congregations and foundations

The Consortium of the Niagara Frontier

Contacts: Robert Hausrath, Director: rhausrat@daemen.edu

Program Description: Established in 1975 at Attica Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison for men in Wyoming County, New York, the Consortium of the Niagara Frontier is one of the oldest PSCE programs in New York State. Offering Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Social Sciences or Humanities, the Consortium consists of Niagara University, Canisius College, and Daemen College. In 2001, the Consortium left Attica and now operates only at Wyoming Correctional Facility, a medium security prison for men also located in the town of Attica. In the years before the elimination of Pell and TAP grants for students, the Consortium employed 17 full-time staff and 80 part-time teachers. Now, Robert Hausrath, director of the Niagara Consortium, is one of two people running the program.

Degrees Offered: Associate’s and Bachelor’s Degrees

Programs Offered: N/A

Unique Features: N/A

Headquarters: Wyoming County, NY

Correctional Facilities Served: Wyoming Correctional Facility

Population Served: People who are incarcerated in Attica Correctional Facility. Students must have a GED or a high school diploma and must pass a basics skills exam to be accepted into the program. While enrolled, students must maintain a 2.0 GPA in their courses to continue to participate in the program.

Number of Students: N/A

Graduates to Date: Since its inception, the Consortium has conferred 426 Associate’s and 292 Bachelor’s degrees.

Year Founded: 1975

Founders: N/A

College/University/Organization Partnerships: Niagara University, Canisius College, and Daemen College

Funding: Publicly funded by line item grants included in the New York State annual budget

Cornell Prison Education Program

Program Website: http://cpep.cornell.edu/_Home

Contacts: Dr. James (Jim) Schecter, Executive Director, jas349@cornell.edu; 607-255-2852, http://cpep.cornell.edu/_Home; Robert Turgeon, Faculty Director, ert2@cornell.edu

Program Description: The Cornell Prison Education Program was established to provide college courses to incarcerated students at a maximum and medium security prison in upstate New York, and to engage Cornell faculty and students with the vital issue of the country’s burgeoning incarceration population. The Cornell Prison Education Program is dedicated to supporting incarcerated persons’ academic ambitions and preparation for successful re-entry. We believe that Cornell faculty and student engagement as instructors at correctional facilities manifests Ezra Cornell’s commitment to founding an institution where “any person can find instruction in any study.”

In the mid-1990s when an act of Congress and subsequent state legislation caused the collapse of taxpayer-funded College programs in most state prisons, a few faculty members, led by Professor Pete Wetherbee, undertook to offer a handful of classes on a volunteer basis in Auburn Correctional Facility (a maximum security prison one hour from Ithaca). In 1999, Cornell (alone among Ivy League universities) enabled these college classes to be given for credit, charging neither tuition nor fees.

Degrees Offered: Associates Degree in Liberal Arts

Programs Offered: Twelve courses are offered each semester. The classes are taught by volunteer faculty and by graduate students who receive a small stipend. The classes are also supported by a group of forty undergraduate tutors/teaching assistants.

The expanded program is designed to lead to an Associates degree, through a consortium linking Cornell University, Cayuga Community College, Auburn Correctional Facility, and Cayuga Correctional Facility. The largely liberal arts curriculum has ranged across classes in the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences.

Unique Features: N/A

Headquarters: Auburn, NY; Moravia, NY

Correctional Facilities Served: Auburn Correctional Facility, Cayuga Correctional Facility

Population Served: Incarcerated men and corrections staff at Auburn and Cayuga Correctional Facilities

Number of Students: 117 in academic year 2008-09

Graduates to Date: Of the 117 men who enjoyed courses this past year, 86 completed the spring term, and 38 were identified as ‘full-time’ students eligible to enroll in 3-4 courses concurrently for each semester until completing all requirements for the associates degree to be conferred by Cayuga Community College.

Year Founded: 1994

Founders: Professor Pete Wetherbee

College/University/Organization Partnerships: Cayuga Community College confers degree), Cornell University

Funding: Cornell faculty members offered classes on a volunteer basis in Auburn Correctional Facility. In 1999, Cornell enabled these college classes to be given for credit, charging neither tuition nor fees.

In 2009, with a two-year seed grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation and additional support from the Provost’s office, Cornell has now greatly expanded the prison education program.

Bedford Hills College Program

Program Website: http://www.mmm.edu/study/resources/academicachievement/bhcp.html

Contacts: Aileen Baumgartner, Director, abaumgartner@mmm.edu, 914-241-3100 ext. 4514; www.mmm.edu/study/resources/academic/bhcp.html

Program Description: Through the Bedford Hills College Program, Marymount Manhattan College offers non-credited College-preparatory courses and credit-bearing courses leading to Associate of Arts degrees in Social Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Sociology at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a New York State maximum-security prison for women.
In 1995, laws were passed preventing federal monies from being used for educating the incarcerated, causing many prison programs across the country to close their doors – including the one at Bedford Hills. A task force, chaired by then-superintendent Elaine Lord and comprised of education specialists and the incarcerated at the facility, found that the impact of higher education substantially reduced re-incarceration rates. To re-establish the college program without state and federal funding, the taskforce created a consortium of schools that would donate funds and faculty to continue the college program.

The Bedford Hills College Program was founded with this mission statement, composed by the Inmate Committee at the institution in 1996:

We understand the public’s anger about crime and realize that prison is first and foremost a punishment for crime. But we believe that when we are able to work and earn a higher education degree while in prison, we are empowered to truly pay our debts to society by working toward repairing some of what has been broken.

Degrees Offered: Associate of Arts in Social Science and Bachelor of Arts in Sociology

Programs Offered: Marymount Manhattan College is the degree-granting institution and five other schools in downstate New York contribute faculty, resources, and other support to maintain the program (Bank Street College, Barnard College, Manhattanville College, Mercy College, Pace University and Sarah Lawrence College). To fulfill their requirements for a MMC degree, the students at the facility take the same courses offered in Manhattan, including the foundation courses for the General Education Initiative, and a wide variety of electives in art, history, creative writing, computer systems and the sciences.

Unique Features: In addition to supplying the necessary classroom space, the correctional facility supplies room for a learning center that contains the college’s computer lab and the on-site library, staffed by a dedicated coterie of volunteers from the Bedford Hills area. The College Program also offers a wide range of extra-curricular activities and events to the students. These include on-site academic conferences, art exhibits, guest speakers, poetry slams, and a regularly published newsletter written and edited by program students and graduates.

Headquarters: New York, NY

Correctional Facilities Served: Bedford Hills Correctional Facility

Population Served: Incarcerated women of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility; Applicants to the program take placement examinations in basic mathematics, reading comprehension, and essay writing. Depending upon their scores, they are either placed into non-credit preparatory courses or matriculate directly into credit-bearing classes.

Number of Students: Over 1000 women; about 175 students each semester

Graduates to Date: Over 100 students; since 1997, the college program has awarded over 70 Associate’s and over 40 Bachelor’s degrees

Year Founded: 1996

Founders: A task force, chaired by then-superintendent Elaine Lord and comprised of education specialists and incarcerated students at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility

College/University/Organization Partnerships: Marymount Manhattan College

Funding: Privately funded; to re-establish the college program without state and federal funding, the taskforce created a consortium of schools that would donate funds and faculty to continue the college program.

Bard Prison Initiative (BPI)

Program Website: http://www.bard.edu/bpi/

Contacts:
Daniel Karpowitz, Director of Policy & Academics
karpo@bard.edu
Max Kenner, Executive Director
kenner@bard.edu, 845-758-7308
Bard College
PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson
NY 12504-5000

Program Description: BPI offers college inside three long-term, maximum-security prisons and two transitional medium-security prisons. Founded in 1999 by former Bard student Max Kenner, BPI gives men and women the opportunity to earn a degree from Bard College, a highly regarded private liberal arts university. Providing curriculum in line with a traditional liberal arts program, BPI offers Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees and holds classes identical to those taught at Bard College at Annandale-on- Hudson. The admissions office on Bard’s traditional campus makes decisions about acceptance into the Bachelor’s program based on an incarcerated student’s perceived preparedness and regardless of class size at the correctional facility. Incarcerated students are required to have a Bard Associate’s degree before they can apply to the Bachelor’s degree program. BPI now enrolls nearly 200 women and men fulltime in a rigorous and diverse liberal arts curriculum, offering both associate and bachelor degrees.

Degrees Offered: Associates of Arts (Liberal Studies); and Bachelors Degrees

Programs Offered: Coursework in the natural sciences, studio arts, foreign languages, mathematics, literature and an array of the social sciences are offered every semester

Unique Features: What makes BPI so successful is the quality of the instruction. Professors must be fully qualified, and the bulk of instructors are faculty on the main campus.The existence of the Bard Prison Initiative also has a profound effect on the intellectual life of the Bard College campus. Each week, roughly forty campus students visit regional prisons as volunteers. They facilitate a wide variety of pre-college opportunities from GED mentoring to courses in theology and workshops in the arts. These on-campus students now enroll in a range of classes related to their experiences with BPI. A number of Bard/BPI alumni have gone on to organize similar volunteer programs across the country. The Initiative draws on increasing student volunteerism and integrates it with the study of America’s social and civic institutions.

Headquarters: Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

Correctional Facilities Served: Eastern Correctional Facility, Woodbourne Correctional Facility Elmira Correctional Facility, Green Haven Correctional Facility, and Bayview Correctional Facility

Population Served: Women and men who are incarcerated; students must have a GED or high school diploma and program administrators cap admission at 15 spots each year.

Number of Students: Over 200 students

Graduates to Date: As of February 2009, Bard will have conferred 70 Associate’s and 10 Bachelor’s degrees.

Year Founded: 1999, accredited in 2001

Founders: Max Kenner (Bard ’01)

College/University/Organization Partnerships: Bard College

Funding: Privately funded by money raised specifically for BPI

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