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Hakim Jefferson, a 2025 graduate, giving his speech alongside Dean Gregory Sterling, The Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School, who gave the commencement invocation. Hakim Jefferson graduated on campus but returned to the prison to walk with his classmates.
On November 19th, 2025, The Yale Prison Education Initiative at Dwight Hall (YPEI) celebrated a landmark commencement ceremony that awarded ten Associate of Arts (A.A.) degrees to students at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution. This year’s ceremony marks the Initiative’s third formal graduation and reflects the continued growth and impact of YPEI’s college-in-prison programming.
All graduates earned distinction, with nine receiving high honors, highlighting the academic prowess of the cohort. Seven students gave individual speeches at the graduation, reflecting on their experience of taking college courses in prison and its effect on their personal journeys.
Founded in 2016 at Dwight Hall by Zelda Roland ’08, ’16 Ph.D., YPEI launched its first credit-bearing Yale courses and programming at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in 2018. This marked the first opportunity for incarcerated students to earn Yale credit.
In 2021, a transformative $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation and a partnership with the University of New Haven allowed the program to expand to begin offering UNH courses and college degrees to students in prison.
To date, YPEI and the University of New Haven have facilitated more than 1,600 enrollments in credit-bearing college courses for over 150 incarcerated students. More than 180 faculty members, staff, and graduate students from the University of New Haven and Yale have taught, guest lectured, or otherwise extended access to their on-campus classrooms and research to students in prison.
YPEI held its first commencement ceremony in 2023 where it honored seven graduates. As the program has continued to grow, YPEI has expanded its programming and dedication to bringing higher education to prisons within Connecticut.
Zelda stated, “The first graduation was in 2023, and we had graduates who had worked for that degree for five years even before we knew it would be a degree program. It was a beautiful moment, but where did we go from there?” YPEI held its second commencement in 2024, and now, going into this third ceremony, Zelda added that, for YPEI, this milestone shows that “the first graduation wasn’t a fluke and that we are doing something that will continue to impact students and grow, because we know what we’re doing is transformative for the institutions as well as people’s lives.”
The commencement address was delivered by Connecticut State Representative Gregg Haddad, with additional remarks from Undersecretary of Criminal Justice Daniel Karpowitz, as well as James Jeter, YPEI’s former Tow Foundation Fellow and a longtime leader in Connecticut’s higher education-in-prison movement.
“College in prison didn’t give you your capacity,” spoke Jeter, an alum of Wesleyan’s Center for Prison Education. “It challenged it. It gave you a metric to judge yourself against, a standard to hold yourself up to. It tested what was already within you.”
James continued, “I sat behind these walls for 20 years. Prison gives you time, a daunting, heavy time. I don’t mean years; Time just sits on you. You imagine life. You imagine success. You imagine redemption. You imagine a family. You imagine correction — real correction, leaving here and fixing the things you left broken. College in prison anchors that imagination.”
Haddad spoke about the graduate’s responsibility to now serve as leaders both inside prison and beyond. “The degree conferred upon you today is not a piece of paper marking the end of a long challenging chapter. It is a mandate for leadership… You are uniquely positioned to serve as a role model – a living example that transformation is not just possible, but achievable. Your education equips you to be the voice, the mentor, and the guide to those around you.”
Graduates also gave speeches honoring their education and experiences. Hakim Jefferson completed his A.A. on campus at UNH, but returned to the prison to walk with his former classmates. Hakim graduated with High Honors and is now working towards his BA.
Gregory E. Sterling, The Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School, delivered the ceremony’s invocation.
When asked about the event, Emme Magliato ’23, Program Coordinator for YPEI, had high praise for the ceremony and the dedication of the students.
“It’s beautiful to see this event come to fruition,” said Emme. “These students dedicated themselves through every semester, sacrificing their time to pursue education. Many of them were admitted in the same cohort two years ago and they made a pact with one another that they would graduate together. Seeing that come together and the fact that they can celebrate with their loved ones at the ceremony is truly a remarkable achievement.”
Zelda described a recent experience: “I went into the program for a study hall and students were working on computer-based projects for a class called Visual Storytelling. They were working on coding presentations – the projects amazed me, the level of complexity and the challenge of the coursework.”
Zelda continued, “It’s unfathomable that when we started it was 12 of us sitting around a table with no computers, no volunteers – just paper, pen, and a few faculty. And now they’re coding. They’re graduating with degrees. And when they’re getting out, they’re doing incredible things, they’re changing the world.”
The Yale Prison Education Initiative team
When asked about what’s next for YPEI, Zelda stated: “We are thinking about expansion in both state and federal facilities, as well as expanding fellowship programs to work more closely with alumni on their projects. We’ve grown our staff to five people, but throughout all of this growth, we’re still focused on growing sustainably. We want to increase the number of students, expand the number of facilities where we work, and continue building thoughtfully.”
YPEI’s work embodies the Advance pillar of Dwight Hall’s Engage, Grow, and Advance program delivery model. YPEI effects lasting change in the lives of its participants and the larger community while transforming Yale’s campus and leading the way in prison education nationwide.
The program’s success is driven by staff members Zelda Roland; Vanessa Estimé; Tracy Westmoreland; Emme Magliato; and Emilia Thornton.
YPEI also extends its deep gratitude to the many individuals and institutions that make their work possible, including Yale, the University of New Haven, the Dwight Hall staff and student leaders, alumni who continue to support the initiative, the CT Department of Correction and Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the hundreds of volunteers, supporters, and partners across Connecticut.
Learn more about the Yale Prison Education Initiative and contribute to advancing prison education here. You can make a direct contribution to the program through Dwight Hall at Yale, at this link.
*All photos included in this article were taken by photographer Karen Pearson.
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