A program led by the Yale Prison Education Initiative at Dwight Hall (YPEI) and the University of New Haven (UNH) awarded degrees to 11 graduates during a recent ceremony at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, the first graduation ceremony for what is the only college degree program operating in any federal women's prison in the United States.
During the ceremony, held on May 20 at the Danbury prison, incarcerated students received associate degrees. It marked the fourth graduation celebration for the program - which offers incarcerated students access to Yale credit-bearing classes, equivalent to on-campus courses in rigor, course load, and expectations - and the first held at the Danbury prison.
"This is an important moment because we hope that the amazing work we're doing here in partnership with University of New Haven and Yale can serve as a model for other prisons - and especially women's prisons around the country - where too often, women are overlooked, and women are underserved," said Caryn Flowers, warden of the Danbury prison. "By investing in them here, we are investing in their futures, their families, and their communities on the outside. We are also changing life for all the women inside."
Founded in 2016, the Yale Prison Education Initiative at Dwight Hall initially offered liberal arts courses, taught by Yale faculty, to men incarcerated at the state-run MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, in Suffield, Connecticut. Five years later, YPEI in partnership with the University of New Haven began offering degree programs at the prison. (All of the students' Yale credits transfer toward associate's and bachelor's degrees from the University of New Haven.)
In 2022, YPEI expanded to the Danbury facility after the prison's education supervisor reached out to Zelda Roland, '08, '16 Ph.D., the program's founder and director.
For Erin Brown-Smolin, who earned an associate degree with high honors, being a part of the first cohort of students at the Danbury prison has been a life-changing experience.
"Working with the women in my cohort created a different kind of bond than what is usually formed in the prison environment," she said in remarks during the ceremony. "We were in uncharted territory and became a support system for each other. We were the foundation for subsequent cohorts, and as our academic family has grown, we have created a community of learning that inspires those around us and future students as well."
Another graduate, Karmen Englert, applied to the program soon after arriving in Danbury from another federal prison in California. Although she tended to think she "had everything figured out" at the time, she also recognized that she wasn't sure what direction her life was headed - and that the education program was the opportunity of a lifetime. And, she quickly found that the program's leaders saw something in her that she no longer saw in herself.
"They saw the part of me I lost long ago - the part of me that still dreamed. The part of me that still held drive and ambition. The part of me that still believed I could be something other than what I was," she told fellow graduates.
In her classrooms, faculty members taught her new ways to think about life, how to improve her writing, and the importance of perseverance and resilience. "And they also taught me that I was much stronger mentally than any prison walls could hold physically," she said. "And that maybe, just maybe, I really do have a future."
