Education’s Transformative Power on Display as MET Honors Prison Program’s Legacy of Impact
To learn is to be improved upon, to be changed by knowledge. For more than 50 years, Boston University has been a conduit of change for the incarcerated through its Prison Education Program, administered by Metropolitan College (MET). On Tuesday, April 2, 2024, MET invited friends of the program to BU’s Metcalf Trustee Center for a lively discussion of prison education’s role in reducing recidivism and changing lives, both historically and with an eye towards the future.
As BU President Ad Interim Kenneth R. Freeman recalled during his introductory address, the Prison Education Program (PEP) got its start in 1972, when poetry instructor Elizabeth “Ma” Barker convinced then-BU President John Silber (Hon.’95) to launch a bachelor’s degree program at MCI-Norfolk. In 1989, the program would expand to MCI-Bay State, a medium-security penal institution for men, and in 1991 it reached MCI-Framingham, the state’s only institution for women. In time, other colleges and universities followed suit and offered courses, but after the 1994 Crime Control and Prevention Act eliminated the availability of Pell grants to the incarcerated, BU’s was among the few programs of its kind to continue.
“The longevity of the program reflects the University’s values and our commitments,” President Freeman said. “It’s also [a] testament to the desire of individuals who thirst for knowledge and renewal despite the circumstances of incarceration and hardship.”
Indeed, education’s transformative capacity to positively affect lives emerged as the major-most theme of the day’s discussions. In her welcoming remarks, Metropolitan College Dean Tanya Zlateva highlighted the importance of compassion for those who have gone through the traumatic experience of imprisonment. Calling MET the college of “second and third chances—and, if needed, more restarts,” she shared her moving personal experience with one program graduate who made a significant impact on her life.
“I believe that it is upon us to do everything we can to help those who have stumbled and found themselves in prison and still are able to fulfill their promise,” Dean Zlateva said. “How successful we are in this endeavor is the measure of our own humanity.”
‘Hope for a Better Life’
Before she was an educator, Dr. Mary Ellen Mastrorilli was a corrections officer and prison administrator. Now the director of the Prison Education Program, she asked the program graduates in attendance to stand and be recognized. It was her way of acknowledging the transcendent success of the students—some of whom were her former pupils.
The BU Prison Education Program alumni in attendance stood for a round of applause in recognition of their accomplishments.
“Prison education is about hope for a better self and hope for a better life. It’s about access to a human right—that human right being education,” she said. “It’s about the belief and the idea that transformation unlocks human potential.”
Then, in his keynote address, School of Public Health Assistant Professor Noel Vest explained how an education that began while incarcerated led him past a life of addiction into one of an accomplished scholar. After his criminal and legal hardships led him to a seven-year sentence in the Nevada Department of Corrections at High Desert State Prison, Dr. Vest found hope in a program sponsored by the College of Southern Nevada, which allowed him to heal from childhood wounds that left him with the impression that he wasn’t smart enough for school.
“I am so thankful for the [prison education program], because similar to some of the [people] in here, it absolutely changed my life. It brought me around people that were wanting to change their lives,” he said. “It’s not just transformative … because you knew you were surrounded by people that really had struggled in life.”
Dr. Vest also shared his desire to see BU take even further steps to advance its authority in the space.
“I hope that over the next ten years I’m able to help usher in and help BU become more of a leader in prison education. And I hope that I’ll be able to bring in collegiate recovery in a way that is very, very beneficial to the University as well, because I know what a difference it made in my life,” he said.
A Cross-Section of Experiences
The legacy of “Ma” Barker loomed large over the session, with former students attesting to her tenacity as an educator. Some have become significant voices in their community in the years since their time with PEP, and they were eager to lend their support to the growth of the program.
The gathered panel offered diverse insights into the many facets of the program. Sam Williams (MET’92,’13) was another one of Elizabeth Barker’s pupils, and the thought of her today still brings a tear to his eye. “She was someone that didn’t know me, and didn’t know what was possible in my life back then, but she remained committed to not only me, but to the Prison Education Program at Norfolk.”
Williams and Barker shared a strong bond, and he offered a moving tribute to her mentorship, character, and more colorful characteristics. He also explained how he grows a mite territorial about his experiences with the BU program she founded. “I struggle when I hear these other colleges getting credit for the work that I know, and many of us know, that BU was doing way before they came on the scene,” Williams, who also earned his master’s at MET, said. “And I’m just one of many individuals who the program benefited.”
As Dr. Mastrorilli explained, the Prison Education Program could not exist without the partnership of correctional institutions. Mary Haynes, the manager of continuing education at the Massachusetts Department of Correction, made a point to highlight the other colleges and universities that today are offering college classes in correctional facilities, while lauding that BU PEP has “stood the test of time and weathered the storm of changes across the prison education landscape.” She praised the University’s commitment.
“We have grown tremendously, and it really is due to people’s passion for the transformative nature of education, and I think we have Boston University to thank for that. Because they continued to push through some really tough times,” Haynes said.
For Lynne Sullivan (MET’09,’21), getting her education through PEP bestowed a newfound sense of resilience. With the help of a committed mentor, Sullivan was able to overcome her initial obstacles and reluctance and not only completed her education but ended up working for BU as a coordinator while still incarcerated. She saw, with herself and others, firsthand the life-changing impact the BU Prison Education Program could make.
“Education gives you opportunities,” Sullivan said. “If you don’t give someone different options, they have no choices, which means they’re going to go down the same pathway. But when you open up somebody’s mind with education, they start to find out who they are. And then they start to learn about what they can become.”
As José Bou (MET’08,’15) soaked in the grand ballroom environment, he could only marvel at how far life had brought him thanks to PEP. A journey that began in drugs and crime led, after a significant amount of hard work, to a career as a professor of criminal justice and restorative justice theory. His turnaround, Bou said, came when he earned his bachelor’s degree from BU while imprisoned. By excelling as a student, he was able to build the confidence it took to thrive once his sentence was complete. From the stage, he could only take in the view—and reflect on what brought him there.
“I’m looking at these chandeliers and stuff, I’m seeing the privilege that’s oozing from it, and I know that my degree allows me to be here,” he said. “It’s the privilege that comes through the education that I received that allows me to give back to my community in ways that I never would have. I took often, now I give back.”
Bou credited Boston University for the investment it makes in its Prison Education Program, which he counted as a worthy expenditure for a program that not only affects the lives of its students, but the families and communities they return home to—particularly given the sharp declines in recidivism among graduates.
If there was one thing agreed upon by all in attendance, it was that prison education makes an impact, conferring dignity the likes of which can lead to all-important self-discovery.
“Education let me find who I was,” said Sullivan, who today works with the Petey Greene Program, a tutoring and college readiness service for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. “The people that taught me—every one of those professors—gave me something. They believed in me, and they treated me like a human being.”
Treatment like that, she assured, makes all the difference.
“I was a student. I wasn’t a number, I wasn’t a crime—I was a student in that classroom. That changed everything.”
Watch a special video honoring the legacy of the BU Prison Education Program, featuring a few of its proud alumni, below.