LaGuardia Community College/CUNY has been awarded a three-year, $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) to provide educational, training, and wraparound services for residents of Queensboro Correctional Facility.
Queensboro Correctional is a New York State reentry facility for male prisoners scheduled for released on parole within 120 days and those on work release, situated directly across the street from the college campus. Through the Accelerated College Transition (ACT) project, LaGuardia will address the unique needs of New York State male prisoners both pre-release and post-release, helping them complete their educational goals, qualify for enhanced career opportunities, and achieve successful long-term community reintegration.
LaGuardia is one of only 10 institutions nationwide awarded funding for improving correctional education and training from the USDOJ’s Second Chance Act Improving Reentry Education and Employment Outcomes initiative [data.ojp.usdoj.gov]—and the only recipient that will provide services in New York State.
“As a formerly incarcerated individual who once slept at Queensboro Correctional Facility before my release in 2003, it’s a true blessing that I’m now being given this amazing opportunity to apply my personal experience and academic research focus to help current and future facility residents get on track for positive outcomes upon release,” said John R. Chaney, J.D., associate professor of Criminal Justice at LaGuardia, member of the Queensboro Correctional Facility Advisory Board, and principal investigator for the ACT project.
Queensboro Correctional Facility residents participating in the ACT project will receive pre-release and post-release support from admissions through graduation, including individual case management, financial assistance, and course selection advisement.
Prisoners preparing for release from Queensboro will be offered the opportunity to take credit-bearing, transferrable classes taught by LaGuardia faculty and instructors leading to an associate degree at LaGuardia, as well as GED, ESL, and professional workforce training courses offered through LaGuardia’s Continuing Education Division.
The ACT project builds upon LaGuardia’s longstanding relationship with Queensboro Correctional Facility. Since 2017, faculty have volunteered to teach no-credit courses in creative writing, philosophy of law, the politics of government and other topics at the facility, in a program developed and coordinated by Professor Chaney and Dr. Schwartz-Chaney.