Bedford Hills’ class speakers Lacey S. and Zarah C
<picture class="lw_image"> <source type="image/webp" srcset="/live/image/scale/2x/gid/204/width/400/33133_1000100754.rev.1782212786.webp 2x, /live/image/scale/3x/gid/204/width/400/33133_1000100754.rev.1782212786.webp 3x" data-origin="responsive"/> <source type="image/jpeg" srcset="/live/image/scale/2x/gid/204/width/400/33133_1000100754.rev.1782212786.jpg 2x, /live/image/scale/3x/gid/204/width/400/33133_1000100754.rev.1782212786.jpg 3x" data-origin="responsive"/> <img src="/live/image/gid/204/width/400/33133_1000100754.rev.1782212786.jpg" width="400" height="267" alt="Former Bedford Hills superintendent Elaine Lord, whose support helped students and community partners reinstate the college program in th..." srcset="/live/image/scale/2x/gid/204/width/400/33133_1000100754.rev.1782212786.jpg 2x, /live/image/scale/3x/gid/204/width/400/33133_1000100754.rev.1782212786.jpg 3x" data-max-w="3200" data-max-h="2133" loading="lazy" data-optimized="true"/></picture>
Former Bedford Hills superintendent Elaine Lord, whose support helped students and community partners reinstate the college program in the 1990s, was recognized at commencement.
MMC awarded degrees to 30 students in its college programs at two New York State correctional facilities, marking the final cohort of graduates and the last commencement exercises before the College completes its merger with Northeastern University this month.
MMC has awarded degrees at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison for women in Bedford Hills, New York, since 1997. Since 2019, it has also offered degrees at the neighboring Taconic Correctional Facility, in partnership with the nonprofit Hudson Link for Higher Education. Though the programs will no longer carry the Marymount Manhattan name, they will continue under Northeastern, with support from the State University of New York.
For women at the facilities, commencement—held on May 28, with ceremonies in the morning at Bedford Hills and the afternoon at Taconic—is one of the most anticipated days of the year and a source of pride even for those who aren’t graduating.
At Bedford Hills, where 16 graduates earned Bachelor of Arts or Associate of Arts degrees, Massalina, a GED student who came to support a friend, joined the thunderous cheers and shouts filling the facility’s auditorium, struck by the joy of the occasion. “It’s beautiful to see everyone come together to support our peers,” she said.
College program alum Damone Clayton, now pursuing a master’s degree, likened the day’s feeling to Christmas. “It’s important to us because it shows the kinds of transformation that are possible,” she said. “I wish everyone in the population here could witness this.”
Class speakers at Taconic and Bedford Hills spoke of the real challenges of pursuing a degree while incarcerated. Restrictions on internet access force students to rely on the facilities’ libraries or on materials downloaded by professors or volunteers to write research papers. And much of how their day unfolds remains beyond their control. Even so, speakers returned again and again to the rewards: purpose, confidence, and the belief that education could transform their lives.
Taconic class speaker Mone’t D., one of 14 graduating students at the facility, said that choosing to use her time while incarcerated to get an education and “leave with something no one could ever take away” had been one of the best decisions she could make. “[It] gave me motivation, commitment, purpose, and a reason for my existence,” she said. “On the days when things felt heavy, college gave me a reason to keep pushing forward.”
Lacey S., a Bedford Hills class speaker who began her journey in the college program in 2015, congratulated her classmates for never wavering, citing a quote by the memoirist and historian Tara Westover, “An education is not so much about making a living as making a person.” “Prison saved my life and college helped me find myself,” she said. “Eleven years later and I’m still thirsty for knowledge.”
As MMC’s final graduations, this year’s ceremonies also took stock of the powerful history behind the programs and their strong track record of success. Over the past 29 years, MMC has awarded more than 300 degrees to incarcerated students, and the recidivism rate among program graduates released from prison is virtually zero. Like Clayton, many alums have gone on to pursue advanced degrees both on the outside and within the facility; a master’s degree program became available at Bedford Hills in 2022.
The success of the programs drew praise from Daniel F. Martuscello III, commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), who presented Interim President Peter Naccarato with a plaque at Bedford Hills in recognition of the College’s 29 years at the facility. Accepting the honor, Naccarato said that what MMC had accomplished in partnership with DOCCS was “an example not only for the entire state but for the entire country.”
Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Katie Langan reflected on the program’s origins, which grew out of the activism of incarcerated women and were sustained with support from educators, volunteers, and the broader community.
From the early 80s through the mid-90s, Mercy College had administered the college program at Bedford Hills. Then in 1994, President Clinton signed a crime bill that, among other measures, eliminated Pell Grants for incarcerated individuals, “even though those grants represented only 0.06 percent of the more than $6 billion federal Pell Grant program,” Langan said.
The legislation sent shock waves through prison education nationwide, leading to the closure of more than 350 college programs. At Bedford Hills, Mercy’s program suffered a double blow: the loss of Pell Grants and the subsequent elimination of New York State Tuition Assistance Program funding.
In response, a group of determined women at Bedford Hills organized, forming a committee and asking the prison superintendent at the time, Elaine Lord, for permission to explore ways to keep the college program alive. With Lord’s encouragement, the women connected with a longtime volunteer at the facility, Thea Jackson, who contacted her close friend Regina Peruggi, then president of MMC.
Within a year, Peruggi assembled a consortium of college presidents who helped sustain and rebuild the program for years to come. The participating colleges provided faculty and educational resources, while MMC agreed to serve as the degree-granting institution. By the fall of 1996, classes were once again underway at Bedford Hills, supported by a network of volunteers, churches, and community organizations.
Former MMC president Judson Shaver would also play an important part in ensuring the program endured. In 2004, he made the Bedford Hills College Program an official extension campus of MMC and launched a fundraising effort to create an endowment for it.
The ceremonies also recognized the activists who fought to restore the college program in the 1990s. Many were in attendance, including Cheryl Wilkins ’00, Deborah Soule Fitzgerald, and Judy Clark, as well as former superintendent Elaine Lord, who was honored by DOCCS with a plaque. “If I believed anything and still do, it’s that it takes a community,” Lord said. “We can’t undervalue how important each of us is to each other.”
DOCCS also presented a plaque to Aileen Baumgartner, who has served as director of the Bedford Hills College Program since 2002, having first joined as a professor in 2001.
Bedford Hills student speaker Zarah C. recalled how Baumgartner kept the program going during COVID, when the prison was on lockdown, and staff and professors were barred from entering the facility. The program’s Learning Center was shuttered, forcing students to write papers by hand. Baumgartner would collect the assignments from the prison’s front gate and mail them to instructors herself. “We were worried that the program would be suspended, but Aileen turned her dining room into a correspondence center,” Zarah said. “We were one of the few college programs to continue throughout COVID.”
Baumgartner, who typically shuns the spotlight and prefers to work behind the scenes, received a bouquet of flowers from students in the program, with several serenading her as well. “What I’ve gotten back is so much more than I’ve given,” she said.
Emphasizing the community-wide effort required to sustain the program, Baumgartner added, “I take my name as holding space for many names… This is one big book with a lot of pages.”
And though one chapter may be closing as MMC transitions to Northeastern – New York City, the story is far from over, according to Langan. “A name change does not diminish our mission. If anything, it strengthens and expands the work we have done so well for so many years,” she said, adding that Northeastern’s support will help build on the program’s legacy.
To illustrate that point, Langan shared a story told by Melanie George, the College’s new Dance chair, about her mother. Before she married, George’s mother was known by the surname Alexander; afterward, she became George. “But the name change did not alter who she was. The same person remained—the same passions, the same determination, the same spirit,” Langan said. “In fact, Melanie says her mother’s life became even richer afterward because it brought Melanie into the world.”
“That story offers a powerful way to think about this merger and what it means for our prison education program,” Langan added. “The name may change, but the mission, the commitment, and the heart of this work remain.”
When Tabitha Batu-Tiako ’26 attended the Stand Up Speak Out Arts and Social Justice Festival last year to support classmates showcasing work, she knew little about the event or its driving force: MMC’s long history at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women.
