This holiday season, ten inmates at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Connecticut are celebrating the college degrees they received through the University of New Haven Prison Education Program and the Yale Prison Education Initiative (YPEI).
“Today’s graduation is not just a ceremony,” Deputy Warden Kristan Mangiafico said during the ceremony, per a university press release. “It’s a milestone in a journey of personal hope and transformation. Congratulations. You have worked hard to reach this moment.”
“In our communities, to achieve success we are expected to be an athlete, a musician, or just hope to be alive on our 18th birthday,” said Ricky, one of the program’s graduates. “
Ricky is one of the over 150 incarcerated students to have enrolled in the program since its inception. Supported by over 180 faculty, staff, and graduate students from the University of New Haven (UNH) and Yale University, who have taught, mentored, or helped extend research opportunities within the prison’s classrooms, the program celebrated its first class of graduates in 2023. Now, hosting its third commencement, the partnership continues to open doors for students committed to reshaping their futures.
“Immediately, I understood this reality was not the one my father had for me.” Ricky added, reflecting on a phrase his late father once told him. “Be better than me [he said].
He continued: “[Education] not only gives us the tools and knowledge to make sure we get home, but make sure we never come back. Look at me now. I am a University of New Haven college graduate.”
For other graduates, such as Francis, the program felt like an opportunity for redemption. Sitting in the commencement ceremony, which was held at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, Francis acknowledged the significance of celebrating such an achievement in “a place that normally reminds them and us of the realities of our worst decisions.”
“Getting to this point required every one of us to say no to a lot, and yes to a few things. I said yes to the opportunity to redeem myself,” he said. “We said yes to finding a way to be more than our worst decisions.”
Congratulations to the 2025 class of YPEI-UNH graduates!
