For the first time in three years, state prisons in Pennsylvania are again holding in-person graduation ceremonies for incarcerated students. Partnerships between prisons, universities and vocational schools in the region offer programs for students to get a leg-up prior to release.
“Those that are involved with the educational process are 43% less likely to recidivate,” said Daniel McIntyre, a speaker at the graduation ceremony at State Correctional Institution Frackville in mid-November. He referenced a U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics study on prison education as he addressed the crowd in the gymnasium.
“The people in this room are 43% less likely to come back than the overall [prison] population.”
McIntyre is director of the Bureau of Reentry Coordination at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC). He said the higher the degree someone achieves, the lower the chance that person reoffends. Thanks to the return – and expansion – of a grant program, more higher education opportunities in prison could materialize in the near future.
“Education is the key to stopping the intergenerational cycle of recidivism,” he said.
More than 90 students who ranged in age from 20 to their mid-60s were in attendance at the Frackville graduation. Most received high school equivalency diplomas and vocational certificates in front of friends and family. Several students completed college coursework from Lehigh Carbon Community College, Stratford Career Institute and a business management program. Students ranged in age from 20 to their mid-60s.
SCI Frackville, in Schuylkill County, is among at least five prisons across the commonwealth to hold graduation events for more than 340 students since October. The largest ceremony was at SCI Camp Hill in Cumberland County in November with more than 130 graduates.
Ron Berger is principal at SCI Frackville. He’s been with the PA DOC for nine years, previously working in public schools, then at a juvenile facility.
Since the early 2000s, Berger said, incarcerated people who haven’t earned a high school diploma become “mandatory students”. He said a 2004 Pennsylvania prison code requires participation in a General Education Development test course or Commonwealth Secondary Diplomas, both high school equivalents.
Still, Berger said, “it’s nothing given to you. You have to earn it.”
When diplomas were handed out, some men’s names were called more than once, meaning they completed multiple programs.
“If you want to come to school, I’m going to let you come to school,” Berger said. “I’d rather have somebody that’s in school that wants to be there than somebody that has to be in school that don’t want to be there.”
College-in-prison in NEPA
About 50 miles northeast of Frackville, a now one-year-old partnership between a university and a state prison has given opportunities for incarcerated students to earn college degrees.
Called the Prison Education Initiative, the University of Scranton started sending professors to SCI Dallas in Luzerne County in Fall 2021. Statistically, students who complete degrees through that partnership will be less likely to be rearrested when they return to society.
The school offers three college classes a semester to men incarcerated at SCI Dallas, eventually offering them an Associate of Arts degree if they complete 60 course credits, which is exactly half of a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Chris Haw is assistant professor of theology and religious studies at the University of Scranton and the director of the prison program. He said men in the state prison have to apply just like any other student, with an essay and an interview. They must also have a 12th grade education or equivalent to take the college courses, which they can complete in prison if necessary.
Last year when the program launched there were 16 students enrolled, but in Fall 2022, that class size has almost doubled, according to the university.
“It’s not volunteer work or service work,” Haw said, adding that the program at SCI Dallas is popular with professors. “They bring their normal, rigorous college workload into prison.”
David Dzurec is the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Scranton. He said the prison program is part of the university’s Catholic social teaching mission, which regards those on the inside with dignity.
“There is no difference between them and our regular students, and in fact we sometimes refer to the students in the Dallas SCI as the Scranton Dallas campus,” Dzurec said.
Classes at Dallas over the last year have ranged from math and science, to religious courses and Antebellum American History, Haw said.
Another school in the commonwealth paved the way for college-in-prison programs like the one in Scranton.
Just outside of Philadelphia, Villanova University has one of the oldest and largest prison education programs in the country. It began in 1972 as a certificate program and eventually expanded to offer full degrees from the university.
Kate Meloney is the director of Villanova’s program at the Chester prison. Because Villanova offers a Bachelor’s degree to incarcerated students, that makes it the only program of its kind in Pennsylvania, she said. Four adjunct and four full-time faculty teach eight full classes each semester out of nearby SCI Chester.
Back in 1972, “corrections in the United States was still focused on rehabilitation, so education was still at the forefront,” Meloney said, adding that there was a shift towards “more of a punitive movement” in corrections later on.
In 1994, Democratic President Bill Clinton passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Then-senator Joe Biden drafted the bill in the senate, taking away the chance for students in prison to receive federal Pell college grants, which are awarded to those who demonstrate financial hardship.
Villanova’s program persevered, Meloney said, because the school found money to keep it afloat. Like the University of Scranton, Villanova credits its program’s emphasis on social justice to its Catholic ideals.
After the 1994 crime law was passed, nearly 400 college-in-prison programs dropped to about 10, Meloney said.
But at the University of Scranton, program director Haw is optimistic. A move to reinstate federal grants for prison education in 2015 was expanded in 2020, and it goes into effect next year. For the 2023-2024 academic year, more incarcerated students will be eligible for Pell grants.
“We are now part of the many programs that in the last few years are transitioning back into … full, normal Pell funding for these kinds of programs all around the States,” Haw said. “There is a need for those who are in the prison system [locally], but we see this as a national movement of trying to keep people out of prison and extend the benefits of a Liberal Arts education widely.''
Bolstered for reentry
Back at the Frackville prison graduation, families and friends in attendance took pictures with students and enjoyed refreshments after diplomas were handed out. Prison staff took up clear plastic bags to collect the maroon gowns after students had their photos taken.
Barbara traveled about two hours from Philadelphia to see her son, Antoine, receive a business program diploma. He was one of only three students to complete the program in the last three years. Their last name isn’t included in this story at her request to respect their privacy.
Barbara admitted she felt a little claustrophobic when she first entered the prison. Although it was easy to forget that the graduation ceremony was behind bars, guests still had to walk through a metal detector and see heavy metal doors close behind them. After several minutes though, Barbara said that feeling shifted.
“I look around and see how happy everybody is,” she said, “and how it’s a joyous event for all the inmates to achieve this degree.”
She said she was proud of Antoine, especially because he chose a business program.
“Because I got my Bachelor’s in business management,” she said. Barbara said she hoped she had influenced her son. She plans to frame the photo they took together along with the tassel from his graduation cap.
Antoine sat with a family friend on the gymnasium bleachers and shared a plate of snacks.
“It actually means I got something, where I can start my life new instead of doing what I used to do,” he said of his business certificate. “It puts business in a better mindset and it makes me see it better now.”
If Allah wills it, he said, he’ll be able to put that knowledge to use on the outside in a couple of months.
