“What happens to a dream deferred?” Asks Langston Hughes in his poem, “Harlem.” What happens when poor choices and incarceration interrupt hopes and aspirations? For the 1700 men of New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility, many of whom are serving time for violent crimes, those dreams no longer need end. Many of the inmates have found dignity, hope, purpose and a future through Hudson Link, a privately funded non-profit organization that offers inmates access to college courses and the opportunity to earn a diploma. The University of Sing Sing (premiering on HBO March 31) brings viewers inside the walls of the maximum security prison to see that for these men, education is the tool that will allow them to leave prison as valuable and valued members of society, able to care for their families and their communities.
Sing Sing is one of a handful of prisons offering college-level courses to its inmates. Hudson Link is a program that was founded by 5 former Sing Sing prisoners, and offers classes through New York’s Mercy College. Graduates of the program earn the same diploma as the students at Mercy’s other campuses. They use the same syllabus, same materials, same expectations, but “better students,” says Jo Ann Skousen, a professor of English at both Hudson Link and Mercy College. Unlike many of her traditional students, the Mercy Link students have done the reading and are excited, interested and engaged in the classroom.
College is expensive and this program is provided at no cost to the inmates, or the state of New York. Yet, Professor Susan Weiner understands that this program may have its detractors, but urges those detractors to look at this education as gift to society. “These men will come back to the community,” she says. “How do you want them to come back?” It is interesting that, in the U.S. prison system, 43% of inmates released from prison will be back in prison within 3 years. But the graduates of Hudson Link have less than a 2% chance or recidivism. With a statistic like this, it seems that education can make the dreams of Sing Sing’s inmates more plausible and possible than ever before.
The University of Sing Sing premieres March 31 on HBO.