This vacation season, ten inmates on the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Establishment in Connecticut are celebrating the faculty levels they obtained by way of the College of New Haven Jail Training Program and the Yale Jail Training Initiative (YPEI).
“Right now’s commencement is not only a ceremony,” Deputy Warden Kristan Mangiafico mentioned through the ceremony, per a college press launch. “It’s a milestone in a journey of non-public hope and transformation. Congratulations. You will have labored onerous to achieve this second.”
“In our communities, to realize success we’re anticipated to be an athlete, a musician, or simply hope to be alive on our 18th birthday,” mentioned Ricky, one of many program’s graduates. “
Ricky is among the over 150 incarcerated college students to have enrolled in this system since its inception. Supported by over 180 college, workers, and graduate college students from the College of New Haven (UNH) and Yale College, who’ve taught, mentored, or helped prolong analysis alternatives inside the jail’s lecture rooms, this system celebrated its firstclass of graduates in 2023. Now, internet hosting its third graduation, the partnership continues to open doorways for college students dedicated to reshaping their futures.
“Instantly, I understood this actuality was not the one my father had for me.” Ricky added, reflecting on a phrase his late father as soon as advised him. “Be higher than me [he said].
He continued: “[Education] not solely provides us the instruments and data to ensure we get house, however be certain we by no means come again. Have a look at me now. I’m a College of New Haven school graduate.”
For different graduates, equivalent to Francis, this system felt like a chance for redemption. Sitting within the graduation ceremony, which was held on the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Establishment, Francis acknowledged the importance of celebrating such an achievement in “a spot that usually reminds them and us of the realities of our worst selections.”
“Getting thus far required each considered one of us to say no to quite a bit, and sure to a couple issues. I mentioned sure to the chance to redeem myself,” he mentioned. “We mentioned sure to discovering a approach to be greater than our worst selections.”
Congratulations to the 2025 class of YPEI-UNH graduates!
