‘Community Conversations Dinner’ spotlights Tufts University Prison Initiative accomplishments

The Tufts University Prison Initiative at Tisch College of Civic Life held its Community Conversations Dinner on Nov. 14. The event featured TUPIT students and welcomed community partners to learn more about the work being done by the Tufts Education Reentry Network, or MyTERN, program.

Before the event, David Delvalle, TUPIT’s new full-time Education and Reentry Director, spoke to the Daily about his hopes for the event and what this program means to him.

“I want people to understand how powerful this is and how transformational higher education is for somebody who’s formerly incarcerated,” Delvalle said. “We’re giving them that opportunity … to break generational curses.”

Monroe France, vice provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence, spoke after a brief introduction from Delvalle.

“This is an important program at Tufts, as we think about who we are in our society,” France said to the Daily. “When we think about educating the next leaders, we cannot leave anyone behind.”

MyTERN is a program within TUPIT that provides educational and mentorship opportunities for formerly incarcerated people, including both graduates of TUPIT and others impacted by the carceral system. Both MyTERN and TUPIT are part of Tisch College and provide opportunities for collaboration between current and formerly incarcerated people and non-incarcerated Tufts graduate and undergraduate students. 

Dean of Tisch College Dayna Cunningham expressed her appreciation for the mission of TUPIT and the role it plays on campus.

“I see something … happening in the TUPIT classrooms,” Cunningham said during the event. “That is the kind of transformative, breakthrough learning that happens when students from different experiences have the courage to be vulnerable and bring their full selves forward. And TUPIT is really the model for that — it’s a model that could spread across the university.”

Hilary Binda, Founder and Executive Director of TUPIT, and Delvalle then presented community partners with certificates and recognition for the work they do alongside TUPIT.  Among the 13 organizations recognized, two certificates were accepted by MyTERN graduates who are now employed by community partner nonprofit organizations.  

TUPIT functions in collaboration with the state of Massachusetts including the Executive Office of Public Safety, the Massachusetts Parole Board and the offices of Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven.

Eldridge, the chair of the Senate's Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, explained the legislative shift toward prioritizing re-entry. 

“When we were pushing [the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2018], very little of that law was actually focused on the conditions in prison,” Eldridge said. “What has happened is returning citizens, many who have gone through TUPIT, are now leading the effort on criminal justice reform.”

Uyterhoeven similarly spoke about the impact of community organizing within prisons.

“This program really does have this ripple effect,” Uyterhoeven said to the Daily.  “It’s not possible for us to do the work we do without the organizing and fighting for democracy behind the walls that is happening in our prisons.”

The featured speakers of the event were five MyTERN students who spoke about their experiences with the program and the lasting effects of their education.

“TUPIT was able to get me meaningful employment helping my people with addiction,” Jody Boykins said. “They helped me serve the same communities that broke me at one point. And I would never be able to access the knowledge that that’s even possible without TUPIT, Hilary [and] all the people that are making this possible.”

Sean Ellis, current MyTERN student and the subject of the Netflix documentary series “Trial Four,” spoke about the powerful effects of education. 

“It’s important to me that the people in this room know and understand how valuable and important the MyTERN program is,” Ellis said. “Every time I come to class and am able to experience the material in a restorative way, not only is it academically fulfilling, [but] the material — and more so the class — is transformative.”

The final student speaker was Nathan Miksch, who started TUPIT in the same cohort as Delvalle and now serves as assistant director of STEPRox Recovery Support Center. Miksch spoke about how his experience in TUPIT helped him learn how to advocate for himself.

“When I went in for the parole board, I had enough confidence and belief [in myself] that I was able to speak truthfully and from the heart to tell these people sitting on that board what I felt I was going to be able to give to the world if I was allowed to leave,” Miksch said. “And they let me leave.”

In her concluding remarks, Binda asked the audience to invest in TUPIT and announced that the next series of interviews for the program’s fourth student cohort would begin the next morning.

“A major reason that we are gathered tonight is that we are asking for your financial investment in this program. … To continue to do what we do, at the level that we’re doing it, we need to raise $500,000 this year,” Binda said. “We need it now more than ever. Now in a time of incredible uncertainty … in the world, our students are among those who are and will feel the impact most.”