December 2022 Newsletter
In recent years I have come to approach the holiday season with a new pair of glasses. Each year I find time to reflect on the people and events that have touched my life and consider both my accomplishments and those goals that I have yet to achieve. More importantly, I take time to appreciate those who are in my life and those that drive me to make every day one that is filled with purpose. Working in the carceral system I am reminded of the holidays where greeting cards were few, if any, a holiday meal was served in a brown bag, and the longing to be with family, friends, and loved ones could only be achieved in my dreams. Those individuals currently behind the walls of our prisons and jails, and their families, are in my thoughts and prayers.
This year my wish is that every person take time to tell those in your life how much they mean, and to acknowledge those individuals less fortunate that are struggling with life’s challenges. A simple smile, handshake, cup of coffee/tea, or any unsolicited act of kindness could change a life forever.
I am blessed to be leading the Petey Greene Program and an organization which is filled with a passionate and dedicated Board of Trustees, an awesome staff, an amazing group of volunteers, and incredible partners, all working to make this world a far better place to live. I look forward to the year ahead and wish you and your family a very safe, happy, and healthy new year.
Jeffrey Abramowitz
Chief Executive Officer
The Petey Greene Program
News: PGP to present at COABE's 2023 National Conference
The Petey Greene Program's Emma Morrissey, Director of Curriculum and Training, and Jeffrey Abramowitz, Chief Executive Officer, will be presenting at the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) Elevate to a Higher Level 2023 National Conference on April 2-5 in Atlanta, Georgia. Their sessions will be presented both in-person and virtually.
Training Tutors to Provide High-Quality Educational Services in Carceral and Reentry Settings - Emma Morrissey
How can we prepare volunteer tutors—who are adult learners themselves—to provide high-quality tutoring services for adult learners who are currently and formerly incarcerated? In this presentation, we will explore how the Petey Greene Program, a national nonprofit organization, defined high-quality tutoring in carceral spaces and uses this definition to train volunteer tutors to support the academic goals of currently and formerly incarcerated people. We will review training and tutoring outcomes for both tutors and students.
Put Me in Coach: Exploring Tutoring & Mentoring Behind & Beyond Our Prison Walls - Jeffrey Abramowitz
Put Me in Coach explores the importance of tutoring and mentoring in the correctional and reentry settings. As educators one of our very best assets lie in the people who can provide individualized educational support and guidance for our students. This workshop will provide insight and best practices for educators and those providing tutoring and mentoring to justice impacted individuals.
News: PGP's Founding Executive Director Jim Farrin honored with award
Princeton University honored Jim Farrin (right), Founding Executive Director of the Petey Greene Program, with a 2022 Community Engagement Award. Dave Brown, Princeton's Associate Director of the Pace Center for Civic Engagement, reflected on his first encounter with Jim fifteen years ago.
"It was Reunions of 2008 when an overly friendly man dressed in his Reunions attire appeared in the doorway. He didn't come to reflect on his past but to light up the future with a uniquely inspired but nearly impossible idea, or so I thought, to send Princeton students inside New Jersey prisons....Flash ahead several years, and I'm reading a quote from a participant in the program that Jim built, taking the idea and the funding from his classmate Charlie Puttkammer and the inspiration from [Ralph Waldo] Petey Greene, Jim moved mountains and made it real. The quote was from a program participant about feeling lost before participating in the initiative. It spoke about how this experience allowed the writer to feel connected in a human way beyond the boundaries of their institution. But the quote was not from an incarcerated student but a Princeton volunteer. It's not hyperbolic to say that this now-national program at universities and prisons significantly impacts life paths on either side of the divide.
Jim thinks institutionally but acts personally. He makes good things happen in the very best ways; working together with real people begins to change the narrative in a way that no book, documentary, or lecture could. This program is about shining light on the oppressive, racist injustice manifest in our carceral system....It has inspired waves of other actions, all owing to Jim and the justice work that will continue to spread."
From its humble beginning 15 years ago, with 12 Princeton undergraduate volunteers, the PGP has supported thousands of incarcerated students, recruiting and training tutors from 30 colleges and universities volunteering in 43 correctional facilities and reentry settings, becoming the nation's most extensive tutoring program for currently and formerly incarcerated learners.
Congratulations, Jim, on your well-deserved honor, and thank you for all you have done to improve the lives of incarcerated people and volunteers!
Support our Annual Campaign
Matt Wilson, Division Manager, PGP New York, along with classmates, Devon Simmons and Tomas Corera, Jr., share their college bridge experience.
Dear PGP Supporter,
I’m a 41-year-old father of two children, a full-time PGP employee, and a full-time student. It’s not easy to balance the responsibilities of being a father, provider, and student—but challenges are nothing new to me; I have gone from prison to college and then some.
My first child was born when I was 22; feeling I was running out of economic options, I committed a robbery. When the judge announced my 13-year sentence, he added, "Your life is not over, Mr. Wilson. You still have a shot at creating a life for yourself." My experiences while incarcerated taught me that he was right.
A voracious reader, I considered my sentence a time to create a better version of myself, a new narrative. I read everything I could get my hands on; my creativity grew like a seedling pushing through the darkness for the light of the sun. Using only the materials available to me—pencils, pens, a sewing needle, and a copy machine—I created a graphic novel, Swords of Fortune. The experience was life-changing. It launched a new personal narrative, a life of educational enrichment culminating in a BA in Communications and Media Management and soon a Master’s in Sociology, which I am about to complete.
My struggles and successes demonstrate the power of education to change one’s life path. As the Division Manager at PGP NY, I pay my blessings forward by supporting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated aspiring scholars and artists on the path to creating new narratives about themselves through education.
Please make changing the narratives and trajectories of countless individuals and the communities they return to a part of your personal narrative. Support our work today with a generous donation!
Happy holidays, and thank you sincerely.
Matthew Wilson
Division Manager, PGP New York
View more of Matt's art at Incarceration Nations Network