Tribeca College, Newly Accredited to Confer Degrees Upon Inmates, Graduates Its First Class
Tribeca’s Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) recently earned a unique certification that allows it to bestow a distinguished credential on a small cohort of students. In January, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which governs accreditation of colleges and universities in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, authorized BMCC to begin granting two-year degrees to prisoners incarcerated at Otisville Correctional Facility, a state prison located 80 miles away, in Orange County.
“This makes BMCC the only branch of the City University of New York that is accredited to grant prison degrees,” says Dr. Michelle Ronda, a sociologist who chairs the school’s Criminology and Criminal Justice Department, and also serves as the assistant academic director of the Prison-to-College Pathways Pipeline (P2CP) at Otisville. “It means we have been certified as having a legitimate, high-quality education program and that we’re following federal requirements. We’ve been vetted as empowering incarcerated learners.”
On May 8, Dr. Ronda and her team from BMCC (including the college’s president, Dr. Anthony E. Munroe) donned full academic regalia to attend a graduation ceremony at the facility, which was held on the stage of the prison’s auditorium. Joined by family members of cap-and-gown-clad David Adamson, Tyler Gaston, and Derek Smith, the BMCC contingent cheered as the students were awarded degrees in liberal arts. (Five other students also received degrees in absentia, because they were released from prison after completing their studies, but prior to the ceremony.)
At the ceremony, Dr. Munroe said, “at BMCC, we believe that education is a powerful and transformative tool for social change. It opens doors. It expands possibilities. It breaks cycles that once seemed unbreakable. And here, through P2CP, we see that truth in its purest form. This program is not about where you began. It is about where you are going. It is about the future you are choosing to build.” He urged the graduates to “carry forward the discipline you have shown here. Carry forward the curiosity that brought you into the classroom. Carry forward the belief that you are capable of greatness. Because you are.”
Otisville superintendent Delta Barometre described the moment as “a testament to resilience, determination, growth and the power of opportunity.” She added, “you, graduates, have demonstrated that education has the power to transform lives, strengthen families, and positively impact communities.”
Mr. Adamson, aged 50, has served 19 years of a life sentence for second-degree murder, and will be eligible for parole in 2027. He said, “this is one of the happiest moments of my life, and I’m very appreciative, very humbled by it. The education is going to set me up for a future that I may have not seen. But now that I do see it, the sky is the limit. My hopes and dreams are simple. My purpose is to give back to the community and to make sure that we’re relevant.”
“Programs like this one are important,” he added. “It teaches us how to get back into the community and how to represent ourselves in the community. What I hope for my fellow graduates, my peers in the audience and soon-to-be graduates, is that we continue to help each other and that as we grow, we grow together.”
Mr. Smith, aged 48, has served nine years of a 16-year sentence for first-degree manslaughter, and has a chance at parole this year. He said, “you can’t go nowhere without education in this world,” and added, “we did this to show you we can make something of ourselves, and we refuse to allow our past lives and mistakes to define us. This is especially important for me because I’m the only one among my now-deceased mother’s five children to have any kind of education whatsoever.”
Mr. Gaston, aged 32, has served five years of an eight-year sentence for sexual abuse in the first degree, and may be considered for parole in 2027. He said, “I want to thank God for the opportunity to be here and persevere. I never thought I would end up in prison, but in many ways, I’m glad to experience this, because it was a culture shock to me. I’ve learned so much about what the world really looks like, what society looks like, who I am as a person, and who I want to be. Education, to me, is freedom. It’s one step closer to being the person we’re meant to be.”
Mr. Gaston’s parents, Raymond and Laura, also attended. His father said, “we’re so happy and proud of what our son has accomplished, and what the school and facilities here offered him. The effort these gentlemen put in to bettering themselves is just outstanding considering the circumstances they’re under.” His mother added, “he’s working very hard. We talk to him every day, and he talks about his professors and classes, and the things he’s reading and learning, and we’re just so happy about the program and hope they can continue it.”
Dr. Ronda, who teaches classes at Otisville each week, says, “BMCC has for many years had programs to help students who were formerly incarcerated, but P2CP makes the leap to helping currently incarcerated students.” She notes, “prison is a complex territory, with many challenges. The good news is that prisons run by New York State had already been welcoming higher education for decades, because they have seen the benefits. The problem is that federal student aid, in the form of Pell Grants, ended in 1994, under Bill Clinton’s crime bill. This meant that only privately funded programs survived. New York went from hundreds of college prison programs to just six.”
“But Pell Grants for prisons came back in 2015,” Dr. Ronda continues, “when President Obama pushed to restore them on a small scale. And miraculously, the current White House administration has not had an issue with this.”
“A primary reason people wind up incarcerated is because they were not well served by the educational system as children,” she says. “They have been failed by that system. Many have some sort of learning disability, which correlates to behavioral issues. They don’t have a way to cope with school and school doesn’t have a way to cope with them. Because schools don’t know what to do with these students, the cycle becomes ‘reject and eject.’ And as we put more law enforcement officers in schools, this is treated as a public safety or criminal justice issue, rather than being about education, social justice, or public health. By high school, this correlates strongly to involvement with juvenile justice system, and that is strongly predictive of adult incarceration.”
Dr. Ronda notes, “every study about college in prison shows better outcomes than all other programs. Recidivism drops to one percent for participants—and that’s not just those who graduate, but everybody who takes classes, even if they don’t earn a degree. Compare this to the overall incarcerated population, with between 65 and 80 percent returning to prison within three years. Being able to say ‘I’m a college graduate’ gives them a chance at a job that will pay a living wage.”
She observes that a New York State Corrections program “gives prisoners the chance to reduce sentences by six months after completing 24 college credits. Many of our students come in for the six-month benefit, but then want to stay because college is changing their lives. They say, ‘this is making my parents proud and making my kids look up to me, and I’ve never experienced that before.’ Some report that their kids announce they want to go to college, because of the father’s example. This is transformative, because men in prison spend a lot of time worrying that their sons will follow in their footsteps. That is exactly what is happening here, but in the opposite way from what they worry about. Education is the best crime prevention tool we have in society.”