Reflections on Getting a College Education in Prison
Thomas Miles, a graduate of Bennington College's Prison Education Initiative at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, New York, wrote about his experience earning his associate's degree while incarcerated.
"Why bother? What’s the point? These are questions that inevitably arise in conversations about college programs in prisons. But these questions make certain assumptions about education in general and higher education in prisons specifically. What is it, exactly, that is not worth it, according to skeptics and naysayers, about college education in prison? Ought we not to consider just what the point of education is in the first place? My position as a prisoner has given me the opportunity to contemplate the question and arrive at some insight into it."