HARTFORD, CT – Formerly incarcerated people spoke to legislators on Thursday about the need to improve access to higher education for incarcerated people.
During a public hearing for the Higher Education and Employment Committee, several people testified regarding HB 5127, a bill that would require the Department of Correction to conduct a needs assessment for the delivery of post-secondary education programs in Connecticut prisons. Many of the formerly incarcerated people who testified called on the committee to go further than the current language of the bill.
HB 5127 states that the DOC’s assessment must include consultation with institutions of higher learning, analysis of DOC policies regarding postsecondary education, determination of unmet need for postsecondary education in the state’s prisons, an inventory of supplies, classrooms and other materials, and recommendations and cost analysis to improve access.
Brittany LaMarr, a Smart Justice leader with the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, spoke about the benefits that postsecondary education for incarcerated people have on society at large.
“We can make a meaningful impact in the state of Connecticut by making a commitment to investing in the most powerful tool with a positive correlation and impact on public safety and economic productivity,” LaMarr said. “Prisoner education programs have an economic impact on the state, returning roughly $4 to $5 for every $1 invested in education programs.”
Abraham Santiago, a formerly incarcerated man who earned his postsecondary education through the Second Chance Pell pilot program, called the bill a first step.
“This bill is a first step, but does not go far enough. It does not make room for the voices of the incarcerated,” Santiago said, noting that the bill lacks a requirement to consult with incarcerated people. “What would a need assessment be without the voices of the people in need?”
“Connecticut should create a formal, multi-stakeholder group, which includes the incarcerated and the formerly incarcerated, to develop a detailed, multi-year state prison education strategic plan, a plan that considers existing programming, staff, resources and infrastructure, and then charts a path to expanding student centered, post secondary and career pathways,” Santiago said.
Dr. Erin Corbett, CEO and co-founder of Second Chance Educational Alliance and the Director of the Prison Project at Quinnipiac University, called upon legislators to take a more active role on the issue.
“Like many black folks in this country, I have very personal ties to incarceration,” Corbett said. “People are coming home every day, people are returning to their communities who have built up skill sets to contribute. We cannot do that, especially in the economy that we have now, without the requisite skills that are learned in post secondary education.”
Corbett continued: “We need legislators who are strong enough, have the will enough to really press the issue when things don’t sound right, to ask the right kinds of questions so that we’re better able to serve the students inside.”
Marisol Garcia, currently a Yale Prison Education Fellow and a Bard Prison Initiative Health Fellow, began her postsecondary education while incarcerated at York Correctional Facility. She earned dual associates degrees before graduating from Trinity College with a Masters in public policy. She is now a first-year law student at Vermont Law School.
“Being incarcerated, you get treated like an animal. Education allows you the experience to transform that and at least get past that,” Garcia said. “It gives you the skills to gain a voice, to gain the critical thinking skills to change your life, so when you leave prison you’re not looking to come back. If you don’t have those skills and you don’t have that experience, prison becomes a revolving door.”
Gus Marks-Hamilton, campaign manager for the ACLU Smart Justice campaign, described the goals of the campaign: “The goal of the campaign is to amplify and center the voices and lived experiences of people who have been directly impacted by the criminal legal system, particularly people who were formerly incarcerated.”
Marks-Hamilton said: “There’s a lot of stigma and discrimination that exists and is directed at people who have a criminal record. Helping people who have been through the criminal justice system and who are living with a conviction is in the best interests of everyone in the state. When everybody has an opportunity to be housed, to have a job where they can support themselves and their families, that’s going to make everyone in the state better.”
Marks-Hamilton was clear about why all residents have a stake in the outcomes for formerly incarcerated people.
“Sentences are finite.They have a specific end. We need to do a better job of putting a period at the end of a person’s sentence so that they can be a productive, contributing, happy member of our community, and that currently doesn’t happen.”
