By Jennifer Kohlhepp, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — When 95 percent of those incarcerated will be released, it only makes sense to the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons (NJ-STEP) Consortium to educate prisoners so they can become good citizens, good family members, good taxpayers and good employees.
NJ-STEP aims to reduce the rate of correctional failure, increase public safety and in the long run reduce the costs of prison. NJ-STEP is an association of higher education institutions in New Jersey that works in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Corrections and State Parole Board to provide higher education courses for all students under the custody of the State of New Jersey while they are incarcerated and assist in the transition to college life upon their release into the community.
Gov. Chris Christie appeared at Mercer County Community College (MCCC) on Thursday morning to throw his support behind the NJ-STEP program.
The governor said NJ-STEP is about the preciousness and value of human life.
”You know, in politics, often people talk about life in a way that can be controversial because we have different views of when life begins and how life should be treated,” Gov. Christie said. “I say to my Republican colleagues all the time that if in fact you are pro-life, you need to be pro-life after they leave the womb too. And that this program is about how precious human life is, how each human life is truly a gift from God, and that we need to treat each human life that way, no matter how we find it.”
Gov. Christie said there could be a 16-year-old heroin addict sitting in a jail cell right now who has potential so bright it would blind people.
”Her life is no less precious, nor valuable, nor a gift from God, than the life of that 16-year-old student whose potential is so obvious that it blinds you,” Gov. Christie said. “We need to make sure that we bring that message to everyone and through programs like this we’re beginning to be able to do that.”
He also said society needs to destigmatize incarceration and that NJ-STEP gives prisoners the opportunity to reintegrate into society in a meaningful way.
NJ-STEP’s vision is that every person in prison who qualifies for college should have the opportunity to take college classes while incarcerated and continue that education upon release. A host of studies of higher education in prison demonstrate that this is one of the best ways to reduce the recidivism rates of people who are sentenced to prison, according to NJ-STEP. The current recidivism rate is 67.8 percent of prisoners returning in three years after their release, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
MCCC President Patricia C. Donohue said, “MCCC is proud to be a part of the pipeline that starts in the prisons and moves to the campuses and prepares them to join the work force.”
NJ-STEP’s current member institutions are MCCC, Princeton University, Rutgers University (New Brunswick), Rutgers University (Newark), The College of New Jersey, Drew University, Essex County College, Raritan Valley Community College and Salem Community College.
The consortium is housed at Rutgers University in the School of Criminal Justice. Each consortium member has a working partnership with one or more of the correctional facilities in New Jersey. Every consortium member is responsible for selecting teachers and offering courses in the partner facility. Academic counselors help prisoners plan for release from prison and a central admissions officer helps prisoners get accepted into colleges contiguous with their release. Consortium members also have developed reentry support programs at their colleges to improve success rates of formerly incarcerated students who are enrolled there, according to NJ-STEP.
Todd Clear, provost of Rutgers-Newark, said, “Just having us in these institutions make them better places.”
He added, “Really there is no better investment that New Jersey can make.”
NJ-STEP has been pre-selected for the Pathways Project managed by the Vera Institute of Justice and is funded by a conglomerate of partners including Ford, Gates, The Kellogg Foundation, Open Society Foundations and the Sunshine Lady Foundation.
Gov. Christie said, “I’m here because I want this program to get larger and to succeed even more.”
Mr. Clear said working the NJ-STEP program gives prisoners hope.
The governor said hope is powerful but fragile.
”We need to be vigilant stewards of that hope,” Gov. Christie said.
Two stewards of hope, including NJ-STEP, changed Benjamin Chin’s life.
The NJ-STEP graduate said, “I stand here having been supported by two groundbreaking initiatives — NJ-STEP’s Mountain View Project and the Rutgers Recovery House. It was these initiatives that have, through higher education, allowed me to transition from incarcerating to graduating with honors and distinction from our great state university.”Mr. Chin continued, “It’s an honor and privilege to be here today, because it’s not often that formerly incarcerated people with experiences like mine — experiences of childhood trauma and early mental illness diagnosis, addiction, contact with the criminal justice system and finally, recovery, get the opportunity to be up here. But that is changing. The voices of formerly incarcerated people, individuals in recovery, are now being heard, are now being brought to the table, and are now being valued. And so for that, I thank you.”
