More people in New Hampshire’s prisons will soon be able to earn their college degrees.
The White Mountain Community College was one of five schools in New England to win a $100,000 prison education grant last week. The money will help it expand the associate degree programs it began in the Berlin prison in 2023 to the men’s and women’s prisons in Concord.
The state’s four-year colleges, including the University of New Hampshire, also plan to join the program.
Leah Machiejewski, the White Mountain Community College’s vice president of academic affairs, said this year’s graduates have asked to be tutors for incoming students. They asked their math teacher to give the commencement address.
And faculty have said teaching inmates has reinvigorated their love for teaching.
“I have an instructor who tells me her preference is prison education, and if she has to limit her contact hours in any way, she would rather it be the other courses than the prison program courses,” Machiejewski said.
The program is a collaboration between the college, the Department of Corrections, and the New England Board of Higher Education prison education program.
At the Berlin prison, prospective students can choose between the community college’s liberal arts and business administration programs. Most qualify for federal grants that cover the full cost of their courses.
Machiejewski said they limited the options to courses that could be taught within a prison, without access to the internet, and to career fields that graduates with criminal convictions could join. The first Berlin students graduated this spring. All but four chose business administration.
Machiejewski said attending classes within a prison feels a lot like learning in a classroom on campus. Students are treated the same, regardless of where they learn.
“The goal is supporting the development of empowerment and agency with the students who are involved in these courses, which is what we want for all of our students throughout the community college system.”
New Hampshire lawmakers passed legislation last year that prioritized vocational and educational training within the state’s prison system. The effort brought together state agencies, including the departments of education, corrections and employment security, and higher education officials.
Sarah Kuczynski, director of the New England Prison Education Collaborative, said that collaboration within state government makes New Hampshire unique in New England. And White Mountains Community College was already running a successful program in the northern part of the state.
“New Hampshire is an interesting situation in that…we have someone doing great work,” said Kuczynski. “We have facilities (in Concord) where there aren't programs being delivered. And so how can we kind of fill that gap?"
