ALLIANCELIFE
THE MAGAZINE OF THEALLIANCE SINCE 1882 VOLUME 150 | No. 03 | MAY/JUNE 2015
THE MATH OF HEAVEN A MINISTRY OF JESUS IS THE WAY A day is worth a thousand years SECOND CHANCES A story of healing and courage Nyack’s higher ed. in prison program pg. 10 pg. 18 pg. 14 inFocus
Recent Nyack College graduates of the Hudson Link program stand to celebrate their accomplishments during a ceremony at the Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, N.Y. Read more about this ministry of second chances on page 14.
Photo by Babita Patel
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“‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me’”
(Matt. 25:35–36; emphasis added).
or more than a century, Nyack (N.Y.) College has sent men and women to do more than just visit prison inmates. F As far back as the late 1890s, Bible classes conducted at Sing Sing prison by Mrs. Virginia dePeyster Field were legendary. Mrs. Field was a colleague of Dr. A. B. Simpson and also a member of the faculty of the Missionary Training Institute (MTI), now Nyack College. A pioneering member of The Christian and Missionary Alliance’s Board of Managers, her signature is on the original articles of incorporation. Inspired by her study of the Gospels—and specifically of Matthew 25:36—Mrs. Field sought and received A Ministry of approval from the New York State Commissioner of Corrections to hold classes at Sing Sing prison in Ossining, N.Y. Her outreach ministry teams included MTI students, and after her death in 1922, MTI alumni carried on her prison ministry through the 1950s. Second Chances Fast forward nearly five decades, and the evidence of Mrs. Field’s legacy prevails.
Dr. Michael Scales, president of Nyack hen federal funding for education in College and Alliance Theological Seminary, prisons was cut in the late 1990s, Nyack’s higher education personally congratulated each man who Nyack College joined forces in 2000 graduated from the education program. W with Hudson Link for Higher in prison program Education in Prison, a Westchester County, N.Y., nonprofit established by Dr. Anne Reissner in 1999 to restore opportunities for education. In 2001, by Deborah D. Walker Nyack College graduated its first cohort of 17 men who finished the adult degree program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, as it is now known.
ALLIANCELIFE 14 MAY/JUNE 2015 After this milestone graduation, the program needed a changed me, and I became strong enough to endure the for good behavior, and produces well-read, articulate sufficient number of inmates who would be in the A graduate’s family ridicule of others who were still trying to find their way.” leaders who have a calming influence on other inmates facility for 14 months—and have 60 college credits—for celebrates during Other Nyack College/Hudson Link success stories and even on prison employees. the ceremony. the program to continue. Numbers for another Sing Sing include John Conyers, founder and executive director of Nyack seized an opportunity that still produces cohort were short, but Nyack was undeterred by the the nonprofit Saving our Society, which identifies tremendous outcomes. While the national rate of shortfall and subsequently began offering single courses organizations or businesses that will employ formerly recidivism is 43 percent, Hudson Link’s is less than 2 in Taconic Correctional Facility for Women, a medium- incarcerated men and women and provides general percent. Sing Sing’s class of 2001 still boasts a 0 percent security facility in Bedford Hills. mentoring, and Thomas Ryer, who is executive director of recidivism rate. Public Affairs and Advocacy for the Men’s Empowerment “When I shook hands with each new Nyack College oday the Hudson Link program is led by Network, a multicultural organization whose mission is to graduate, I didn’t see a man and his past; I saw a man executive director Sean Pica, who was develop and mentor men and boys. Thomas has also been and the possibilities for his future,” commented Dr. among the 2001 Sing Sing graduates who involved in the Forestdale Fathering Initiative, an Michael G. Scales, Nyack’s president, after a recent T earned Nyack degrees. At 16, Sean’s life was innovative program that helps noncustodial fathers commencement ceremony for 24 men at Fishkill anything but sweet; that’s when he entered strengthen their bonds with their children and families. Correctional Facility in Beacon, N.Y. the New York State Department of Corrections system. His work focuses on outreach to teens and younger fathers. “We are delighted to be part of this personally The son of a New York City police officer, Sean was not transforming program that infuses tremendous hope in above the law when he made a youthful decision to commit he benefits of in-prison college programs the lives of the incarcerated.” a crime. The guilty verdict resulted in an 8- to 24-year were substantiated in a 2009 report, sentence. He spent some 16 years in several maximum- “Education from the Inside, Out,” issued by Deborah D. Walker is director of publications and security correctional facilities—Elmira, Coxsackie, Great the Corrections Association of New York, media relations for Nyack (N.Y.) College and Alliance President Scales T Theological Seminary in the Office of College Meadow, Eastern, Greenhaven, Shawanagunk, Down helps a graduate the state’s oldest criminal justice Relations. State, and eventually, Sing Sing. As an adolescent, Sean show off his organization. The paper concludes that postsecondary was being conditioned to suppress emotion and build a new diploma. education reduces recidivism, gives inmates an incentive hardened exterior to survive his incarceration. That could have become his prison within a prison, but Nyack College unlocked doors for Sean that might otherwise have been shut tight. By the time he entered the Nyack adult degree completion program, Sean had accumulated 118 college credits from several in-prison undergraduate courses. After Sean earned the Nyack bachelor of science degree in 2001, he went on to complete a master of science degree in professional studies at New York Theological Seminary, a master’s degree in social work from Hunter College, and two certificate programs—one in health and human services and one in physical therapy. In 2014, Sean was appointed to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Council on Community Re-Entry and Reintegration, a taskforce that addresses obstacles men and women encounter after release from prison. The Christ-like love that Mrs. Field took into Sing Sing is the same love that men and women from Nyack College continue to share in the educational/mentoring relationships with people like former Sing Sing inmate Darryl Butler. This 2003 Nyack College Hudson Link grad also completed a master’s degree in professional studies at New York Theological Seminary. Today he is working on his master’s degree in social work at Fordham University while fulfilling his degree requirements for field placement through an internship with Hudson Link. Continuing his personal development through community-based self-help courses, Darryl explains how he was able to persevere. “My faith provided me with a sense of confidence, compassion, purpose, and determination that I had only heard about.” After his release, Darryl began to visit churches where he was touched by the experience of worship services. “The central theme that spoke to my heart was that God loves us and though we fall, His love is still there for us to repent and move on doing the good that we were meant to do. This message of unconditional love radically
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