College News: “Never too late to change”: College Graduation Inside a New York Prison
By Kathleen Moore, Times Union Staff Writer, May 24, 2024
Greene Correctional Facility inmate Antwan Goodman of Syracuse, center, adjusts the tassel on aclassmate’s cap during a graduation ceremony for the college program at Greene Correctional Facility onThursday, May 23, 2024, in Coxsackie, N.Y. SUNY schools are teaching in half of the state’s 44 prisons.Twenty students graduated from the Greene Correctional 2024 class with an associate degree of appliedscience in individual studies through Columbia-Greene Community College and Hudson Link.
Will Waldron/Times Union
The graduation held at Greene Correctional Facility Thursday will now be more common at other prisons after state, federal grants for the incarcerated are back.
COXSACKIE — Writing a 30-page paper is hard enough without having to do it amid a brawl.
But that’s what some of the most recent Columbia-Greene Community College students had to do to earn their associate degrees.
Nineteen graduates live at Greene Correctional Facility. Inside the prison, with no access to the internet for research, they had to complete the same projects as every other college student.
There have been limited college programs in New York prisons for years, ever since Congress banned prisoners from getting federal Pell grants to pay for college classes in 1994. New York followed suit in 1995, voting that prisoners couldn’t get the state’s tuition assistance program, TAP.
Since then, the State University of New York system has slowly added professors back — and it is currently offering courses in half of the state’s 44 prisons, using grants to pay for them. A nonprofit organization called Hudson Link has been the main organizer and fundraiser for that effort.
But soon, the floodgates may open. Pell grants will be available to prisoners again starting this fall, and prisoners have been allowed to get TAP since the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year.
Hudson Link and SUNY officials are expecting programs to expand with the new funding.
Prisoners at Greene Correctional Facility Thursday said they hope a college degree will keep them from falling back into crime after their release.
“I don’t want to be a statistic,” said Jaredd Elston, 30, of Saratoga Springs, who is in prison until 2027 on assault charges. “Prior to college, I was pretty naïve.”
Studying has helped them understand the world as well as themselves, prisoners said. But it’s more than that.
“This is my extended family, my educational family. It’s a family of positivity,” said Tyrone Heath, 52, who was convicted of manslaughter in Bronx County in 2012.
Studying in prison
Instructor Anne Woulfe, who teaches classes on cultural diversity, said that in some ways the students in prison are more focused. They don’t have phones. They come to class. They appreciate the opportunity in ways that traditional students do not.
But in other ways, her classes are a mental evolution for the students.
“How do you think about other people? How do you work with other people?” she said of topics in the class. “Once they get back into the community, they’re going to be better citizens.”
The professors still assign 30-page papers. Because the students have no access to the internet for research, “they have to work harder,” she said.
Greene Correctional Facility inmate Jeffrey Barber beams from ear to ear after graduating with top honors from a prison college program held through Columbia-Greene Community College and Hudson Link on Thursday, May 23, 2024, during a graduation ceremony at Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie, N.Y. SUNY schools are teaching in half of the state’s 44 prisons. Twenty students graduated from the Greene Correctional 2024 class with an associate degree of applied science in individual studies.
Will Waldron/Times Union
It was so hard to focus at times that Jeffrey Barber, 37, of Keeseville, said he would sometimes stay up all night so he could study after everyone else went to sleep.
Barber is in prison on a robbery charge, after grabbing a woman’s purse. It’s not his first time — he was previously at Greene on a burglary charge. When he was released he enrolled in college — but he was arrested again.
This time, he said, it will be different.
He graduated with high honors and the top grade point average in the class.
“It was extremely hard, having to do it with all the distractions,” he said, citing noise and fights as the top problems.
“If I had to, I’d stay up all night, wait ’til people fell asleep,” he said.
Then in 2022, the prison leaders created a “college dorm,” housing all of the college students together.
“That made all the difference,” he said. “An environment where everyone would be focused on a goal, help each other study.”
Barber is scheduled to be released in September. He’s planning to continue his studies at SUNY Plattsburgh to get a bachelor’s degree in accounting.
The prison held a graduation ceremony Thursday and dozens of family members filled an on-site cafeteria. Any prisoner who is taking college classes could watch the ceremony as well, and they cheered enthusiastically for each man.
Antwan Goodman of Syracuse raises his arms in celebration after graduating from a prison college program through Columbia-Greene Community College and Hudson Link on Thursday, May 23, 2024, at Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie, N.Y. SUNY schools are teaching in half of the state’s 44 prisons. Twenty students graduated from the Greene Correctional 2024 class with an associate degree of applied science in individual studies.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Graduates said the children in the room were some of their biggest reasons for sticking with difficult classes.
Antwan Goodman, 47, of Syracuse, in prison until 2027 on a weapons charge, was able to bond with his teenage daughter while they both studied for a diploma. She is about to graduate from high school.
“It’s very inspiring. We talk about school a lot on the phone,” said his daughter, Asette Goodman.
It’s a big deal for these men to see their children proud of them. One young boy got a big hug and thanks when he shouted with pride, “That’s my dad!” during the ceremony.
Greene Correctional Facility inmate Kevin Barksdale hugs his daughter, Taylor Barksdale, 14, during a graduation ceremony for the prison college program at Greene Correctional Facility through Columbia-Greene Community College and Hudson Link on Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Coxsackie, N.Y. SUNY schools are teaching in half of the state’s 44 prisons. Twenty students graduated from the Greene Correctional 2024 class with an associate degree of applied science in individual studies.
Will Waldron/Times Union
But a degree doesn’t only mean a promise of a better future — it can mean less time behind bars.
“By earning my degree, I become eligible to receive six months off my sentence. I will be home in time to see my oldest daughter graduate,” Kevin Barksdale said when he gave the speech for the class.
Pointing to his daughter in the crowd, he shouted, “Daddy will be there!”
Barksdale, 34, is in prison on charges of assault and possession of a weapon.
In his speech, he said the best decision he’s made since going to prison was to enroll in college.
“I wanted to leave a better man than I came in,” he said. “It’s never too late to change. We are all living proof of that.”