The premiere screening of “Higher Education in the Prisons” is on Friday May 11, 2012, 1:00 - 3:30, CUNY Graduate Center. (RSVP is required, please email Vernice.Blanchard@mail.cuny.edu or 212-794-5539.) This link http://cunyufs.org/statement.pdf has the text below. (Currrent GSLIS studentStassia Pasela performed some of the photo research for this project.:) Here is the text: The premiere screening of “Higher Education in the Prisons” is on Friday May 11, 2012, 1:00 - 3:30, CUNY Graduate Center. (RSVP is required, please email Vernice.Blanchard@mail.cuny.edu or 212-794-5539.) Professor Campbell Dalglish (CCNY) created the documentary from the University Faculty Senate Conference on Higher Education in the Prisons. Professor Dalglish, is a screenwriter, filmmaker, and has developed and facilitated prison education programs. He demonstrates, in his documentary, how these programs, “effectively reverse the pipeline from our broken public school systems into corporate owned prisons, giving inmates an educated plan for life that can promise rehabilitation, not only for criminals, but for society as a whole.” The UFS Conference, held in February of 2011, brought together a dynamic presentation of seven tri-state prison education program leaders, students, and university researchers. The panels include the Bard College Prison Initiative, Bedford Hills College Program, Drew University, Hudson Link College Program, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Nicholson Foundation, NYC Justice Corps, NYC Prisoner Reentry Institute, Princeton University, Raritan Valley Community College, The Inside-Out Center, Queensboro Correction Facility, Queensborough Community College, Weslyan University, Vassar College. The film demonstrates the transformative power of education to change lives, create new family dynamics, and a positive role in society. In the film you will survey discussions and research on how corrections officers see education change their prisons; how admissions, curriculum planning, and the unique obstacles created in the environment when teaching in prison are addressed. The interest in the conference far exceeded our limitations of space and we hope you will be able to join this opportunity to attend premiere screening of the film. There will be a panel discussion with opportunity for audience questions. Please rsvp by email to Vernice.Blanchard@mail.cuny.edu. The UFS Higher Education in the Prisons Committee, Emily Tai, Chair Director’s Statement, by Campbell Dalglish “Down by law at the Devil’s School” was a term often used by inmates I was working with in a special drama program at the Bridgeport Corrections Institution in Connecticut back in 1987. “Down by law” meant that while in prison inmates would abide by the laws set by the inmates - not by our government, or the wardens, not by the guards or the priests or the counselors or teachers – it was code for obeying rules created and executed by inmates, and they were both incendiary and critical for surviving a very mean penal system. “Will they (my fellow inmates) have my back if something happens and I really need it?” is the question that dominates most inmate behavior on a daily minute–by-minute basis. When inmates graduate from the Devil’s School, they’re smarter criminals with more muscle and more shared knowledge about how to commit a crime better than before. Given the clothes they came in with, 75 bucks, an unemployable degree from the Devil’s School, a pat on the back and sent back into the community, what do we expect them to do? Without a plan, without a viable alternative, WITHOUT AN EDUCATION they would turn to what sent them into jail in the first place, with the main goal not to get caught. On February 4th, 2011, the UFS of CUNY put together a masterful conference on HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE PRISONS. Expert panelists from seven different private institutions in New England who currently have education programs in prisons discussed how their programs effectively reverse the pipeline from our broken public school systems into corporate owned prisons, giving inmates an educated plan for life that can promise rehabilitation, not only for criminals, but for society as a whole. Listen to our own John Jay College President Jeremy Travis describe the “Iron Law” of the American prisons, which is that all prisoners eventually come back home–to family and to community. Where’s the hope for their participation? How do they become citizens engaged in a progressive society? What motivates them to want to put their shoulder against the wheel of positive social change- theirs and ours? It all lies in education, education they can access while in prison, and continue once they come home. On May 11th, 1 P.M. at the CUNY Graduate Center we will screen a 90-minute version of this engaging thought-provoking conference. Come and revisit the presentations, and get in on the discussion. This affects every American community, every American public educational institution. Get in as an educator, get in as a citizen. Get in the game of re-civilizing our American culture from within our penal system with Public Higher Education. In this context CUNY’s mission of “Access to Excellence” could not be a more potent cure for all of us. Stasia Pasela (Stay-sha) University Faculty Senate 535 East 80th Street – Rm 110 New York, NY 10075