Harry's Story

Harry Breault

“Every Friday morning, for four years, I found myself sitting in a prison classroom. On every one of those days, I got to walk back out. Because of the Petey Greene Program, I never forgot about the people who couldn’t follow. The Program is more than an activity: it has helped to deepen my worldview, and I will be forever grateful for that.”

Harry Breault is a veteran Petey Greene Program volunteer, tutoring in prison and jails each of his four years as a student at Haverford College. His work spanned the gamut of needs in prison classrooms. He supported teen-aged students with computerized learning, as well as teaching functionally illiterate middle-aged students to own something that can never be taken away from them: the ability to read. We caught up with him during a site visit to State Correctional Institution – Chester in Philadelphia, where he will be tutoring for his final semester before graduation. We asked him how Petey Greene Program tutoring has informed his college experience.

“The tutoring experience reinforces sociological knowledge in a real and unsettling way. I witnessed challenges, successes, and victories in carceral settings. Now, I understand how large and unmet need for education is, and the great potential it has. As a society, we need to commit to prison education and invest in it.

The program dramatically improved my confidence and taught me the importance of developing relationships with the people who work in the facilities as well as the students I supported. It teaches volunteers to work within these hidden communities and to build active, productive relationships and partnerships.”

Harry hopes to work in the Boston District Attorney’s Office on criminal justice reform policy post-graduation. We’re grateful to engage volunteers like Harry who have a direct, beneficial impact on the lives of the incarcerated people we serve.