On Tuesday, February 11, the students of Bedford Hills College Program (BHCP) attended their last in-person class in weeks. A correctional officer wildcat strike that spread across 40 of the 42 prisons in New York State, put Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in lockdown — barring professors, directors and any other civilians from visiting.
After two weeks, New York state authorities and a union representing corrections officers reached a deal last night to end the widespread strikes. The officers were protesting for better pay, heightened searches of prison visitors, and a reversal of recent prison reforms that limit solitary confinement.
“It boils down to safety within the prisons. Nobody feels safe, the inmates, the officers, the civilians so that’s what the strike is about,” said Jessica Soble, Coordinator of the Prison Education Program.
Governor Hochul deployed 3,500 members of the National Guard to Prisons to maintain order amid the strike, but BHCP and other prison educators received reports of poor conditions within the facilities.
“The incarcerated individuals are just going through hell on the inside. They are not getting meals. They’re not getting medication, and in some of the prisons the heat has been turned off,” said Soble. “They’re basically all being kept in isolation right now.”
Incarcerated individuals at Bedford Hills maintained lines of communication through tablets with their families who passed along emails to Soble that said, “They’re giving them a loaf of bread and telling them to ‘make it last a week.’”
The conditions were poor for the 138 students of BHCP as they are relied on limited access to resources for educational programs to work towards completing classes, semesters and degrees.
“They don’t go through as fast as you do on the outside, in four years; it takes longer on the inside. I know that the bachelor students especially are terrified. They need to finish the semester because a few of them at the end of the semester are going to be transferred to another facility, and they’re working on their senior seminar right now. They can’t do that somewhere else,” said Aileen Baumgartner, Director of the Bedford Hills College Program. “It’s just so crucial that we get through this semester.”
Despite the disruption, educational programs still continued on at Bedford Hills using methods established during the COVID-19 lockdown. Baumgartner and two part time staff packed 138 envelopes for BHCP students full of assignments and notes from professors, pens and pencils, and loose leaf paper since the students can’t get to their computer lab. When the students received the envelopes Baumgartner said, “They were thrilled… getting that ‘here we are, we’re still here we’re working’ was really important to them.”
BHCP was the only college prison program in the state that still running during the strike. Baumgartner shared that other facilities did not have the ability to get materials to their students which means they may have to cancel their semesters.
Governor Hochul announced an agreement late Thursday to tentatively end the wildcat strike on Saturday, and Baumgartner has hope it really will be over soon and does not, “see this as a situation that could go on for months and months.” But if things continue, there are alternatives in place.
“We could start using the WebEx machines, and the classes could meet virtually,” said Baumgartner. “And we could finish the semester through correspondence if we had to. It’s not ideal obviously, but our experience, having done it through correspondence [during COVID-19], is that the students worked very hard.”
BHCP students have told Soble via email that continuing to receive assignments during the strike is helpful in taking their minds off the situation. “So we are going to continue doing that as long as we can,” said Soble.
Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs / Dean of the Faculty Katie Langan echoed this sentiment saying, “MMC leadership has been working closely with our prison education program staff and our partners at Hudson Link to mitigate as best as possible the disruption to BHCP and Taconic student education with an ultimate goal to have teaching and learning resume its normal course as swiftly as the situation allows. There is no question that the faculty and staff are dedicated to our students.”
