Petey Greene Reunions Event: “Tell Your Story”
May 24 @ 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Frist Campus Center, North Arcade
The Giving Tent will be a networking opportunity for alumni to reconnect with fellow volunteers and the Petey Greene Program staff! We would love to hear about your volunteer experience and how it impacted your career or life journey. Come network with staff, current volunteers, and the Princeton community while adding your artistic flare to a mural created by incarcerated students at SCI-Chester. For those who didn't have the opportunity to volunteer with us yet, visit our tent to learn about our program and the importance of our service work.
From Prison to College and Beyond: Advocating for Educational Justice and Systemic Change in Carceral Spaces
May 24 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
McCosh Hall, Room 28
Moderator: Chiara Benetollo *21, executive director, Puttkammer Center for Educational Justice and Equity, The Petey Greene Program. Panelists: R.L. Goldberg *21, instructional specialist, Prison Teaching Initiative; Jill Stockwell *17, associate director, Prison Teaching Initiative.
There are more people incarcerated in the United States than in any other country, and the U.S. also has the highest incarceration rates in the world. Black and Latinx people are disproportionately affected by mass incarceration: Black people are incarcerated at six times the rate of Whites. According to the most recent available data, 30% of those who are incarcerated do not have a high school diploma or GED, and only 5% have a college degree. Education not only is essential to disrupt the cycle of incarceration, but it also helps create spaces of freedom that are not dominated by carceral logics inside prisons and jails. This panel will bring together representatives from the leadership of the Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI) and the Petey Greene Program (PGP), two Princeton-based organizations that support the academic goals of incarcerated learners, offering college-level courses, tutoring, and college readiness programs inside state and federal correctional facilities in New Jersey and across the northeastern US. Building on their experience designing and implementing academic programs in correctional facilities, the panelists will discuss recent policy and legislative changes that have the potential to dramatically expand access to education in prison, while reflecting on the many challenges that still stand in the way.
Key to Change: Unlocking Housing Opportunities for Returning Citizens
May 24 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
McCosh Hall, Room 28
Moderator: Jeff Abramowitz, CEO, The Petey Greene Program. Panelists: Yusuf Dahl *17, CEO, The Century Promise; Carl Gershenson, director, The Eviction Lab, Princeton; Nicholas Kikis, vice president, legislative and regulatory affairs, New Jersey Apartment Association; Madeleine Marr ’21, legislative assistant, Office of Senator John Fetterman
Housing denials, not because of present circumstances but because of a past mistake —sometimes decades ago—is the harsh reality for countless justice-impacted individuals seeking housing today. It’s an unfortunate truth that those who have paid their debt to society often find themselves locked out, with homelessness rates among them nearly ten times higher than that of the general population. Please join us for a thought-provoking discussion as our panel of experts uses the short film “Backgrounded” to launch a discussion on how past incarceration remains a barrier to housing and opportunity long after reentry into society and provides a roadmap on how landlords, advocates, and policymakers can work together on a path forward.