DIGITAL PORCH CONVERSATION ︎︎︎ Dr. Baz Dreisinger with Lawrence Chua, Julie Mehretu and Paul Pfeiffer
Denniston Hill is reaching out beyond our campus to know and work with neighboring communities across Sullivan County in upstate New York. As we approach our 20-year anniversary, we want to deepen our connection to this land and the people who live here.
We talk a lot about liberatory practices, especially with regards to art making, education and agriculture. We also fully acknowledge that liberation itself has many meanings, depending on who you ask. One important population living in Sullivan County are formerly incarcerated men and women. Woodbourne Prison is 15 minutes from our campus. Our neighbors in the towns of Monticello, Fallsburg and Woodridge include the family members of those currently in prison who want to be close to their loved ones, as well as individuals released from the prison themselves.
Dr. Baz Dreisinger is someone who cares deeply about the re-entry process and its lasting, usually traumatic impact, on men and women fighting for their second chances at a full life. She is the Founding Academic Director of John Jay University’s Prison-to-College Pipeline program, which offers college courses and reentry planning to incarcerated men at Otisville Correctional Facility in Orange County, New York. In our conversation, Baz expressed that this work is not prescriptive. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution to the issue of mass incarceration in America. Rather, the pipeline is a philosophy: “there is a role for universities to play in prisons and justice systems.” And that partnership can look a lot of different ways.
Denniston Hill co-founder, Lawrence Chua, called out one danger in this work, which is masking the inhumanity of prisons with education and agriculture programs. He questioned if the prison itself gained more from such initiatives than the inmates themselves. Baz said yes AND yes. She noted that that “awareness is important,” AND that there are people involved who deserve access to knowledge and opportunities. Baz is a ‘card-carrying’ abolitionist, and asks, ”in the name of abolition, we are not going to provide services to people who need it.”
We talk a lot about liberatory practices, especially with regards to art making, education and agriculture. We also fully acknowledge that liberation itself has many meanings, depending on who you ask. One important population living in Sullivan County are formerly incarcerated men and women. Woodbourne Prison is 15 minutes from our campus. Our neighbors in the towns of Monticello, Fallsburg and Woodridge include the family members of those currently in prison who want to be close to their loved ones, as well as individuals released from the prison themselves.
Dr. Baz Dreisinger is someone who cares deeply about the re-entry process and its lasting, usually traumatic impact, on men and women fighting for their second chances at a full life. She is the Founding Academic Director of John Jay University’s Prison-to-College Pipeline program, which offers college courses and reentry planning to incarcerated men at Otisville Correctional Facility in Orange County, New York. In our conversation, Baz expressed that this work is not prescriptive. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution to the issue of mass incarceration in America. Rather, the pipeline is a philosophy: “there is a role for universities to play in prisons and justice systems.” And that partnership can look a lot of different ways.
Denniston Hill co-founder, Lawrence Chua, called out one danger in this work, which is masking the inhumanity of prisons with education and agriculture programs. He questioned if the prison itself gained more from such initiatives than the inmates themselves. Baz said yes AND yes. She noted that that “awareness is important,” AND that there are people involved who deserve access to knowledge and opportunities. Baz is a ‘card-carrying’ abolitionist, and asks, ”in the name of abolition, we are not going to provide services to people who need it.”
Baz also pointed out that whatever services are provided to people inside of prisons, the need is even greater on the outside. There is trauma and family connections to heal, lives to rebuild. Most importantly, folks need roofs over their heads and they need JOBS.
Baz is a dot-connector. Culture…to race…to criminal justice…to capitalism. We talked about the conditions of the unpaid labor force used by prisons and corporations everywhere to continue their own economic policies rooted in capitalism that perpetuate slavery. We looked at alternative workforce models such as cooperatives, which not surprisingly are rare in the United States.
Baz shared this list of businesses who support the lives of system impacted people around the world. It even includes a public restaurant located within a jail!
Click each name to learn more:
Our conversation was so rich. Much more in the YouTube link above. We are grateful to all of you who watch -- you are on the porch with us. We hope we’ve dropped a few seeds here that will benefit your own gathering and growing of knowledge.
Dr. Baz Dreisinger will be a resident at Denniston Hill in Summer 2024.
@bazdreisinger
@incarcerationnations
Baz is a dot-connector. Culture…to race…to criminal justice…to capitalism. We talked about the conditions of the unpaid labor force used by prisons and corporations everywhere to continue their own economic policies rooted in capitalism that perpetuate slavery. We looked at alternative workforce models such as cooperatives, which not surprisingly are rare in the United States.
Baz shared this list of businesses who support the lives of system impacted people around the world. It even includes a public restaurant located within a jail!
Click each name to learn more:
Our conversation was so rich. Much more in the YouTube link above. We are grateful to all of you who watch -- you are on the porch with us. We hope we’ve dropped a few seeds here that will benefit your own gathering and growing of knowledge.
Dr. Baz Dreisinger will be a resident at Denniston Hill in Summer 2024.
@bazdreisinger
@incarcerationnations