The Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP) was established to provide college courses to people in prison in upstate New York, and to engage Cornell faculty and students with the vital issue of the country’s burgeoning incarceration population. In the mid-1990s when an act of Congress and subsequent state legislation caused the collapse of taxpayer-funded College programs in most state prisons – a move undertaken despite ample evidence that education reduces recidivism by more than 60% – a few faculty members, led by Professor Pete Wetherbee, undertook to offer a handful of classes on a volunteer basis in Auburn Correctional Facility. In 1999, Cornell enabled these college classes to be given for credit, charging neither tuition nor fees.
Before the Cornell Prison Education Program
Cornell at Auburn: An Experiment in Teaching and Learning (2008)
Pete Wetherbee, Professor Emeritus in English wrote about Cornell at Auburn before the Cornell Prison Education Program, describing prison teaching in the decades after Pell Grants were denied to incarcerated individuals.
Mary Fainsod Katzenstein (Government) joined the group in 2005 and initiated a search for funding of additional courses and a formalization of the program. Support was found in Cornell family/alumni, the Provost’s office, two Kaplan fellowships, and eventually a major grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation. In 2010, the greatly expanded Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP) was born. Twelve courses began to be offered each semester. The classes were taught by volunteer faculty and graduate students, supported by undergraduate teaching assistants.
The Associate Degree Program
Cornell University began a partnership with Cayuga Community College in 2008 to offer an Associate degree program for men incarcerated at Auburn Correctional Facility and Cayuga Correctional Facility. The largely liberal arts curriculum included courses on the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences.
A collection of Theatre courses led to the formation of Phoenix Players Theatre Group run by the men in the program with support from Bruce Levitt, Alison van Dyke, Judy Levitt. The program also began offering college preparatory courses for students not yet admitted to the credit-bearing college program.
Additionally, a guest lecture series was launched at Auburn featuring prominent Cornell faculty and administrators in 2010 and has since been extended to the Cayuga and Five Points Correctional Facilities. The series aims to provide a more vibrant academic community within the prisons by providing intellectual enrichment beyond the classroom. The series has included world renowned speakers representing disciplines and special topics unavailable in the curriculum.
First Commencement at Auburn Correctional Facility – June 5, 2012
The inaugural commencement saw the conferral of 16 Associate’s degrees from Cayuga Community College. Some of these students had been taking courses for almost a decade, with Cornell, before the partnership with SUNY allowed the program to launch a degree-granting program.
During 2013, Rob Scott took over as the program’s Executive Director, and the current CPEP staffing group began to take shape. Since that time, the program has expanded to Cayuga and Five Points Correctional Facilities. Also expanded are the credentials that are offered to students to include a Cornell certificate program. And plans are in place to begin a full Cornell University bachelor program at Cayuga Correctional Facility in the Fall of 2026.
All these expansions are the result of generous grants received by various foundations and individuals including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Sunshine Lady Foundation.
Many commencements have followed at each facility since the first in 2012 conferring associates degrees to over 150 students.