College Education for Inmates Program This Sunday in Briarcliff
Sean Pica knows firsthand how critical a college education can be.
Pica was in jail for 16 years after pleading guilty to manslaughter as a teenager. During his incarceration, he received a college education and was released in 2002. Now he is the executive director of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, an organization dedicated to educating prison inmates at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining and three other correctional facilities in order to earn college degrees and provide life skills and re-entry support.
Pica will be speaking at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Briarcliff Manor to talk about the program tomorrow, March 10 at 3 p.m. A 2010 documentary will also be shown that delves into the college education program at Sing Sing and other prisons. The program is free and open to the public.
“I think the purpose, like any college program, is giving men and women the chance to grow as people, not just about getting a certain degree,” Pica said. “In that opportunity we try to create a vehicle that will help transition the men and women when they are released from prison back to their communities, to be a resource back at those communities, and education seems to do that really well.”
Pica said that since Hudson Link was launched there has not been a single case of a student who has returned to prison after completion of the program. The national recidivism rate is 43 percent, according to a 2011 Pew Center study.
All Saints Episcopal Church Rev. Yejide Peters said the public is often unenthusiastic about reaching out to inmates. Once the church became aware of the program, Yejide said the parish became involved.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for us to share with people of many faiths and none, the possibility of hope in prison,” Yejide said. “So it was exciting when our outreach committee took hold of this idea and really tried to encourage this for our congregation.”
Funding for programs like Hudson Link ended with a change in state law in the 1990s. Those who were in the middle of getting a degree were stranded. Hudson Link, which started in 1998, was initially created to help only those inmates finish their education.
But once it was found that the program had made such a positive impact, a drive to maintain the program was launched.
“Every one of those men that have never gone back saves you as a taxpayer thousands of dollars a year,” Pica said. “(But) it doesn’t cost you anything because there is no state or federal funding to do this.”
Hudson Link is funded through community donations, Pica said. Professors from Vassar College, Mercy College, Nyack College and SUNY Sullivan Community College teach the classes at the four prisons.
One of the organizers of the event, All Saints parishioner Audrey Graham, said she attended a graduation last year and the joy the inmates felt was overwhelming. Graham hopes others who attend the March 10 documentary screening and discussion will experience some of that.
“This is a wonderful thing that they don’t return (to jail),” she said. “They are taught in such a way and they have so many classes on rehabilitation, it really works. It proves education is important.”
All Saints’ Church is located at 201 Scarborough Rd. For more information about the event call 914-941-6955 or visit www.allsaintsbriarcliff.org.
