Chatting outside Dayton Correctional Institution are, from the left: WC Prison Education Liaison Ursula McTaggart, DCI Warden Shelbie Smith, Interim President Corey Cockerill, WC Program Manager John Callahan, Jordan Snarr (AmeriCorps staffer) and DCI School Administrator Yolanda Battle.
Submitted photo
Wilmington College has been a trailblazer for more than 50 years in making higher education accessible for incarcerated students in Ohio. This spring, WC is returning to prison education when it starts offering studies leading to a bachelor’s degree at three area prisons.
The College will offer in-person courses at Lebanon, Warren and Dayton correctional institutions through an articulation agreement with education partner Sinclair State Community College, which offers associate of applied sciences degrees.
The recent reinstatement of federal Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated students makes it possible for the return of degree-granting programs in the state’s prisons. In recent months, the College successfully gained multi-layered approval from the Higher Learning Commission, Dept. of Rehabilitation and Corrections, and the Ohio Dept. of Higher Education. The College hired John Callahan as program manager and is now applying to the U.S. Dept. of Education to request access to Pell funds for incarcerated students.
Interim President Corey Cockerill said offering education in Ohio prisons is “squarely aligned with our mission,” which is informed by a desire to serve students from diverse backgrounds.
“Although programs and funding sources have changed, the goals of our prison program remain the same: decrease recidivism, improve the job prospects of returning citizens and provide meaningful personal development for persons who are incarcerated.”
Cockerill cited the work of Dr. Ursula McTaggart, professor of English, who completed an in-depth proposal for the new iteration of WC’s prison program that satisfied the requirements of those aforementioned governmental entities. McTaggart, who is serving as the College’s liaison for prison education, lamented the state’s decision to discontinue degree-granting programs in Ohio prisons in 2012. However, she embraces the wisdom of their return making college education in prisons accessible once again as both a benefit to incarcerated persons and to the greater American society.
“The vast majority of those who are incarcerated will be released. We want a society that helps people become contributing members,” McTaggart said. “And we want to do this in a mission-driven way, so we’re offering bachelor’s degrees with faculty on-site. My goal was to help return the prison program to one that really matters to the College and would be meaningful to students.”
Studies, including those conducted in the heyday of WC’s program by now-retired faculty members, have shown that leaving prison with a degree increases one’s chances for employment and is a significant factor in mitigating recidivism. “Employers want workers with bachelor’s degrees — the demand is there,” she added.
WC is one of only two institutions in Ohio offering bachelor’s degrees in prisons among the seven schools offering degree programs in the state’s correctional facilities.
McTaggart said every course will be held in person at least one day a week while some can be offered in a hybrid fashion. The initial summer term begins in May with fall and spring semesters to follow. The College plans to hire two new faculty members, one in business and the other in social sciences, to join the current faculty members and adjunct instructors who will teach in the program.
Wilmington College began offering education in Ohio prisons in 1967 before any degree programs of any kind were possible for incarcerated individuals. WC’s acclaimed Project Talents program featured faculty instructing vocational and skill-building courses, including personal development, life coping skills, life management skills, career development and readiness, all in addition to business and accounting. In 1985, with federal Pell Grant support, WC became the first Ohio institution to offer full bachelor’s degree studies in the state’s prisons.
Congress discontinued Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated students in 1994, yet the College program continued its educational offerings with state-level funding until 2012 when degree-granting programs were forced from Ohio’s prisons. Yet, WC persisted with a prison presence, primarily through Emeritus Professor Catherine Roma’s acclaimed work with several prison choirs. Also, McTaggart has taught non-credit, “inside-out” programs featuring book clubs at Dayton Correctional in conjunction with her main campus English courses. This allowed WC students to visit the prison periodically and interact with incarcerated students who read the same books. The success of the book clubs helped fuel her passion for leading the College’s return to prison education.
“It changes your view on people, incarceration and society,” McTaggart said. “I’m envisioning some inside-out courses with half the class main campus students and half incarcerated.”
McTaggart said the program’s return also is a legacy of the work done in prisons by College faculty since the late 1960s, particularly Roma’s continuing contribution. “Cathy is the key to the prison program revival,” she added.
Indeed, Roma began teaching in the prison program in 1990. She noted it’s “incredibly exciting” that Wilmington College is involved in prison education again. “There’s such a need,” she added. “From the start, I was amazed at the energy and hunger of the students to learn. The value of the endeavor is important.”
