MMC Prison Education Programs Persevere Despite COVID-19 Pandemic

“I am so proud of our students and awed by their dedication,” says Lisette Bamenga, Academic Coordinator for the TCP.  A week after the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision suspended all visitations to combat the spread of COVID-19, Bamenga met Taconic’s deputy in the parking lot and received a box filled with papers, folders, and envelopes. When she returned home, she inspected its contents. “I was overwhelmed with emotions as I realized that students had turned in assignments for every class. All our students are doing well, and all are appreciative of our sticking by them—there are many notes from the students thanking all of us profusely for not giving up on them and continuing the semester.”

Students in the Taconic College Program continue to complete assignments, which are collected and delivered for grading.The logistics of teaching within the prison system are already difficult, and the pandemic has only further complicated instruction. Both Bamenga and Aileen Baumgartner, Director of the Bedford Hills College Program at the nearby maximum-security facility, say the faculty have been instrumental in keeping students’ routines as normal as possible. Luckily, program administrators and faculty were able to provide revised syllabi and work materials to their students before the facilities shut down, and they have worked out a system for continuously delivering materials back and forth from the students inside the facility to the faculty on the outside. “Now, each Friday, student work is handed to me at the gate and I drop off about 120 packets that include more paper and pens, corrected papers and exams, copies of articles professors want students to read, and new assignments,” says Baumgartner.  “And always a letter from me.”