Dwayne Betts at Great Meadow

Bennington College Prison Education Initiative

The Prison Education Initiative (PEI) brings Bennington College faculty to Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security men's prison in Comstock, New York. Our mission is threefold:

  • to provide a quality liberal arts undergraduate education to incarcerated students
  • to support lifelong learning in men and women serving life sentences
  • to foster transformative conversations around prison reform in America
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Prison Education Initiative

Since PEI’s inception in 2015, the program has served more than 100 students at Great Meadow Correctional Facility, offering courses in literature, philosophy, social research, history of thought, architecture, political theory, social psychology, math, computer programming, drawing, Latin, and U.S. and world history.

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More About PEI
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Lifelong Learning
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Past Conferences

Interviews with Class of '22 Graduates

PEI celebrated its first graduation at Great Meadow eight years after the program launched; eleven students were awarded their Bennington College Associate of Arts degrees. Here are a few of their stories:

Jason B, a PEI 2022 graduate
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Jason B.
Victor B., a 2022 graduate of the PEI program
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Victor B.
Terrance C., a 2022 graduate of the PEI program
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Terrance C.
Joseph K., a 2022 graduate of the PEI program
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Joseph K.
Greg Mingo, a PEI 2022 graduate
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Greg M.
Jason S. a PEI 2022 graduate in a green sweater
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Jason S.
Prison education initiative class session

“I no longer take literature classes for a grade or a degree. I take them out of love for the art and unquestionable wealth of brilliance I get from being a student.”

—PEI student, 2018

PEI student in green hat looking at bookshelf and smiling

“I found the class both enjoyable and illuminating and have left it with a deeper appreciation of democracy, the concept of popular rule, and for political theory itself…Given the opportunity to be treated as a person and to be challenged has helped me to feel as I still have some value as a human being.”

—PEI student, 2017

PEI graduating class picture, '22

Class of 2022—PEI’s first graduation at Great Meadow Correctional Facility

Dwayne Betts poetry reading at Great Meadow

Reginald Dwayne Betts—poet, lawyer and founder and director of Freedom Reads—speaking to PEI students at Great Meadow on December 1, 2022.

Recent News

Langeloth Foundation logo Bennington College Awarded $10,000 Grant From The Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation

The Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation has awarded Bennington College a $10,000 grant to support the Incarceration in America think tank that will be held October 1-2, 2021.

Logo for Mother Cabrini Foundation Prison Education Initiative Awarded $40,000 from Mother Cabrini Health Foundation

Bennington College’s Prison Education Initiative (PEI) has been awarded a grant of $40,000 from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation.

Image of PEI student and teacher Prison Education Initiative Awarded $50,000 from Ford Foundation

Bennington College’s Prison Education Initiative (PEI) has been awarded a grant of $50,000 from the Ford Foundation.

Photo of BPI graduation Prison Education Initiative to Award Associate of Art Degree

Bennington College has received accreditation from the New England Commissions of Higher Education (NECHE) to award a Bennington College Associate of Art degree to incarcerated students through its Prison Education Initiative (PEI).

BPI Graduation Computer Science and Prison Reform

Since its launch in 2015, Bennington College’s Prison Education Initiative (PEI), a program of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA) founded by faculty members David Bond and Annabel Davis-Goff, has worked to bring liberal arts programming to the maximum-security men’s prison Great Meadow in Comstock, NY.

Classroom

Contact

pei@bennington.edu
802-440-4727