Episode 94: Second chances at Queensboro Correctional

LaGuardia Community College Professors Joan Schwartz-Chaney (Humanities) and John Chaney (Criminal Justice) were recently awarded a Second Chance Act Improving Reentry Education and Employment Outcomes grant from the US Department of Justice to fund a comprehensive prison-to-college project at Queensboro Correctional Facility. Their program, the Accelerated College Transition (ACT) project of LaGuardia Community College, will target the residents of Queensboro Correctional, a New York State reentry prison which is across the street from the LaGuardia campus. The project aims to create a multidisciplinary array of prerelease and post release academic and ACE classes, resources and services, targeting Queensboro residents who are expected to be released within four months, as well as those on work release. The ACT project will increase the likelihood of successful community reintegration, increase public safety, and enhance the college’s already successful prerelease volunteer services project at the prison. The $900,000 to be allocated over three years will fund the cost of credit-bearing classes and staffing. Learn more about the project and its principal investigators in this CUNY news release.