NEW YORK STATE LITERARY CENTER'S Incarcerated Education Program
2016 - 2017

In the eleventh year, 2016 - 2017, NYSLC chose the name The Community Engagement Seminar for its Incarcerated Education Program classes at Monroe Correctional Facility. The goals of NYSLC's Incarcerated Education Program were to make education relevant, to introduce different ideas and perspectives, and to enlarge the view of the community for those incarcerated. The name Community Engagement Seminar related directly to the goals. 

This seminar is the education needed in the correctional facility. It helps us to get an education and to find ourselves. We all have dreams and goals. This seminar helps us find those dreams. Education is the key to progressing in life, to not coming back here, to be productive, and to help young kids growing up.

Ramon 

I like the Community Engagement Seminar because it gives meaning and makes all of us feel wanted and accepted. Plus, we are learning, and we all feel happy about this. The seminar is teaching us to think and read and write and this makes us want to go further in our education.

Emmanuel

The Community Engagement Seminar began with a screening of "Echoes of Incarceration" http://echoesofincarceration.org/Home.html,  an award-winning documentary initiative produced by youth with incarcerated parents. The documentary explored the issue of mass incarceration and its effects on families. It was produced by Ibis Productions, Brooklyn, New York an organization that creates documentary films told from the life experiences of the filmmakers themselves.

The participants in the Seminar wrote to their children following the screening. 

I can't keep having these head-on collisions and expect no damage to you my child.

I sit in jail,
a shell of a man,
wondering what to say
for you to understand.
If only I could turn back time,
My life would be different.
My actions were not those of a father.

Is it too late? Should I even bother?
You need to understand my child I love you.
I swear if my heart had eyes it would cry.

D.G.

I just hope you understand I love all so much. I admit I am the worst at controlling my anger, but all this stress in my life has been making me go nuts. 

It is hard for me to express to you how ashamed I feel. You are my six kids, I am pushing fifty, and I am sitting in jail. It hurts to be a disappointment to you, to all of you that I love. 

Brett

I am writing you this letter to try to explain how greatly sorry I am for being in jail while you guys are growing up. I just want to tell you guys that it is nothing you ever did or said either. I never realized I was so bad until the time I got locked up. I have been struggling with alcoholism for a lot of years now. 

I think what I did was from my ego. I did what a lot of what people were expecting, even knowing it was wrong. Instead of saying no I did what was in front of me. I was easily convinced into choosing alcohol over my family. I let alcohol, drugs, and jail get in the way of being the best father I could be to you guys, the father you guys deserve. I was not there financially or mentally for you guys due to my addiction and incarcerations. I missed holidays, birthdays, school, and family functions as well. I will never be able to get them back, and I feel horrible about this. 

Due to all of my addictions and failure to get the help I needed, I managed to lose our family, and I am sorry for that as well. I just hope I can take the skills I am gaining in jail this time and when I am released convert them into life in the real world.

All I want is for you boys to be happy financially, mentally, and physically. I hope to kick this addiction out of the door and be the father you guys deserve. I am truly sorry, and I hope you guys can forgive me. I love you more than words can say. 

Joe

"Echoes of Incarceration"  was followed by a screening of "First Degree," a film produced by Roger Weisberg on can college behind bars stop the revolving door http://www.pppdocs.com/firstdegree.html?

The film generated much discussion about what was offered at Monroe Correctional Facility and does it stop the revolving door. The participants in the seminar put their thoughts into writing. 

The film First Degree was very emotional and inspirational to me, and I hope to others as well. It shows how the judicial system is all messed up. It shows that incarceration would rather pay for food, clothing, and shelter than to pay for our education while we are confined. The system is broken.

First Degree shows how education is very important for me and for other incarcerated men. When I am released from these mental and physical shackles, I am going to tell my grandkids and nephews and nieces that yes minds do matter especially those of Black incarcerated men who cannot vote due to a felony conviction. I want to tell them about how incarceration has changed my life, and without any form of education we are realizing the revolving door scenario. 

I would like to be able to look back and know that I have saved a young life from being a statistic. We who are incarcerated want to do something with our lives and not go in and out of a penitentiary. When I think about First Degree it makes me think about myself and all of the mistakes I have made in my life. The United States has the highest rate of incarceration. Russia is second. We need to stop spending money on unnecessary things that will not reduce the incarceration rate and spend it on education for inmates. 

Jovontae

What I would like to learn more about is education helping incarcerated men and women not come back to jail and move forward with their lives. The film First Degree showed me how getting an education gives you a greater chance of not repeating crimes over and over again because you learn something you care about.

First Degree was inspirational to me in many ways. It definitely showed that the justice system is broken, and how much education would benefit us and lower the recidivism rate. Hopefully this could be incorporated into county jails someday because it would stop us from repeating the same crimes over and over. I would love to look back one day and be able to talk to young adults about not making the same mistake I did when I was younger. I would like incarceration to change life for the better and instead of making better criminals make productive members of society. I believe it would help those incarcerated tremendously to be able to get a college credits while incarcerated in a county jail or a state prison.

What I have been writing explains a lot about how I feel about the justice system and my education and how the education system and teachers could have pushed me harder like they did other students. I feel like I was cheated especially when it comes to my education. I, also, feel I cheated myself by not applying myself more in my schoolwork. As for what I write about it's got a lot to do with what I value and what is important to me in life. 

I really don't know where I belong in the world right now. One thing I do know is that I have a meaning or purpose in the world. What it is I don't know yet. 

The world I live in could be more aware of helping those less fortunate in it, help all of us to succeed and reach our goals. I want to go to college badly but deep down inside I'm scared. I want to succeed but failure is a big fear for me. It hurts to fail. I need a college to help me one on one.

Emmanuel

Dale Davis compiled a Reading List in response to issues raised in the films https://www.nyslc.org/Readinglist11thYear.htm.

Rochester poet Albert Abonado invited Dale Davis to talk about her work with NYSLC and the origin and growth of the NYSLC's Incarcerated Education Program on his radio program Flower City Yawp, "Rochester's source for poetry and poetry related news, featuring interviews, readings, and conversations about the latest in poetry." The Program aired on February 2, 2017 and featured a reading by the participants in The Community Engagement Seminar https://www.mixcloud.com/TheFlourCityYawp/flour-city-yawp-february-2-2017/. Dale Davis produced the segment with the participants reading their writing with two of the participants as Assistant Producers and DJs, Jose Nunez and Chris Ridgeway.

Writing from The Community Engagement Seminar that was part of the broadcast on Flower City Yawp, February 2, 2017.

How does the world see me? Where do I belong? The world sees me as a New York Rican who did not finish his education. I made a lot of mistakes when I was young. I was raised as a street kid. I learned if I kept going the same way I would end up dead or upstate in jail.

Where do I belong?

When I was twenty years old I got shot in the head. I had a two-month-old child. Now I have five children, four boys and one girl. The two-month-old is now sixteen. I have a fourteen-year-old, a thirteen-year-old, a ten-year-old, and a seven-year-old. My daughter is thirteen. 

Where do I belong?

I know I belong with my five children to teach them about life and my own mistakes. I am a father.

Where I am from
at night it is a beautiful look,
but it's a look in disguise.

Where I am from the projects are smelly.

Where I am from
you can see the East River, the Hudson,
and the FDR Drive.

Where I am from
you can see rich and poor.

Where I am from you try to make it anywhere.

Where do I belong?

The gift I want to give my children is me. I want to be by their sides because I know they need me. I always wanted my father. He went to jail when I was little. I was three. When he came out somebody shot and killed him I was seven. I don't want my children to grow up without a father. They are my gift, and I want to be their gift. 

Dear Kids,

I hope you guys are doing great in school. I know things have changed these past couple of months because daddy is gone. Please don't act up daddy will be out soon. You guys do the right things; this is not a place for anyone. Just remember what I told you guys, education is the key to success and to work. 

I am sorry for my mistakes and for not having been by your side during the holidays and for not being there when you get out of school. I'm in jail where it is not cool to be. I know you guys miss me because I miss you. It is good when you guys visit me. You can go back home. I can't. Please learn from daddy's mistakes.

Love,

Daddy

Eddie 

NYSLC, again in partnership with the Rochester Broadway Theater League and the Office of The Sheriff, reunited incarcerated parents in NYSLC's Incarcerated Education Program with their families through classroom readings and writing assignments while incarcerated and a shared experience attending a Broadway musical upon their release. 

Those incarcerated who participated in The Community Engagement Seminar jointly decided to write what the Seminar meant to them for NYSLC's website https://www.nyslc.org/default.htm.