Judith Clark’s clemency shows that prison programs work

On Dec. 30, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a broad and bold commitment to granting conditional pardons, clemencies and full pardons, surpassing the record of all prior New York governors. With full knowledge that he would face considerable backlash, Cuomo advanced a position of political courage and leadership.

As a professor at the CUNY Graduate Center for the past 20 years I have been fortunate to teach and conduct research with women and men in prison, most significantly at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility (BHCF). In 1994, just after then-President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control Act, Pell grants were removed from prisons.

Within six months, a Consortium of colleges was initiated by Marymount Manhattan College, and college at BHCF was resurrected. An evaluation was commissioned. This is where I first met Judy Clark, one of the women for whom the governor has granted clemency.

A systematic policy evaluation of the impact of college was conducted by a participatory research team of seven women from BHCF and five from CUNY; I was the principal investigator.

From 1994 to 2001, we gathered evidence from students in the college program, correction officers, college presidents and faculty, state legislators, children of incarcerated women and prison administrators. The New York state Department of Corrections conducted a 36-month recidivism study; an external cost benefit analysis was undertaken and we interviewed 20 college graduates post-release from prison.

In our final report, "Changing Minds: The Impact of College in a Maximum Security Prison for Women," we documented the extent to which college in prison dramatically reduced recidivism rates (from 30 percent to 8 percent), facilitated the personal and ethical development of the women, led to a reduction in disciplinary incidents in the prison, reduced tax burden and heightened the educational expectations of the children of incarcerated women.

We catalogued the power of these women to radically alter the course of their lives, take responsibility for their crimes, try to heal their own families, express remorse for the people they hurt and narrate their deep desires to “give back” to their communities – even to pay taxes!

In my time at Bedford, I had the opportunity to work closely with Judy Clark, a gifted educator and researcher on the Changing Minds project; a woman who has spent 35 years in prison for a crime for which she has expressed great remorse, grief and responsibility for the victims and their families.

 Over the last 22 years, I learned what the governor undoubtedly learned in his hour-long meeting with Judy. Anyone who has worked at or lived behind bars at BHCF will testify that Judy is a key compassionate soul behind the infant program and the children’s center; a long time “trainer” in the Puppies Behind Bars program raising trauma dogs for returning veterans; a leader in Alternatives to Violence, a program for women affected by HIV/AIDS, and the prison chaplains’ program. A loving force behind bars, she has nurtured young women after they deliver babies in prison and has encouraged these same young women to revisit their pasts and reimagine their futures.

Judy nurses older women, sometimes on their death beds, often with mental illness. I have seen her mediate tensions between inmates at BHCF, between women and correctional officers, and between women and their estranged children. For more than 30 years she was one of the few prisoners whom former Superintendent Elaine Lord, and subsequent superintendents, depended on for programming ideas and community building.

Now, 35 years after her arrest, at age 67, Judy has spent more than half of her life in prison. Her daughter Harriet was 11 months old when Judy was arrested. The world is not safer because Judy Clark is locked up. To the contrary, denying Judy parole would feed a haunting cynicism among women in prison that there is little hope for them if a model prisoner can’t get out.

As we enter a new political era, we desperately need leaders who have the courage to speak for the common good even or especially when they know there will be resistance.

We need leaders who expose and reject the national dependence on punishment, stand up against hate, open the doors for second chances and advocate for just policies. We need leaders who ask, "How much punishment is enough?"

It's time for Judy to bring her gifts of compassion and leadership beyond the bars where she hopes to work with the children of incarcerated women. Her continued incarceration is a stain on the soul of New York. I look forward to welcoming her, and the others who have been granted clemency, back home.

Michelle Fine is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center.