Log in Subscribe

A new beginning: SC Correctional Facility inmates earn Associate's Degrees

Matt Shortall - Staff Writer
Posted 6/27/17

WOODBOURNE — It was a special occasion last Wednesday at the Sullivan County Correctional Facility. Twenty inmates donned their caps and gowns to receive their Associate's Degrees.

Friends and …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

A new beginning: SC Correctional Facility inmates earn Associate's Degrees

Posted

WOODBOURNE — It was a special occasion last Wednesday at the Sullivan County Correctional Facility. Twenty inmates donned their caps and gowns to receive their Associate's Degrees.

Friends and family, as well as SUNY Sullivan and Hudson Link officials were in attendance.

Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison provides access to college courses, as well as life skills re-entry support for incarcerated men and women. Funded entirely through donations and grants, Hudson Link has awarded more than 475 degrees in the past 18 years.

Ian Eckardt-Rigberg, who served four years for manslaughter following a fatal hit and run incident in Albany in 2013, has been out of prison for three months but decided to come back for graduation.

“It felt very important for me to come back and walk with my classmates,” said Eckardt-Rigberg. “I was with them for three years and wouldn't want to be anywhere else today.”

Eckardt-Rigberg says he intends to continue his education at Siena studying either business administration or finance.

Class valedictorian Robert Ehrenberg, 58, not only completed the program with a 4.0 GPA, he helped to write and develop the pre-math and basic algebra class that's now being used in other correctional facilties.

Ehrenberg is originally from Suffolk County, Long Island, and is currently serving two consecutive life sentences for the murder of a coworker 25 years ago.

He's used his time in prison to help tutor fellow inmates in algebra.

“I got my education late in life,” said Ehrenberg. “This is something I really should have done decades ago, but it's never too late in life. You should never settle for second best.”

According to Executive Director of Hudson Link, Sean Pica, inmates who successfully complete the program have a recidivism rate of less than 4 percent - well below the national average of around 67 percent.

“My wife and four-year-old son are both here today,” said class co-salutatorian Eldredge Blalock. “He doesn't yet understand where his father is or what he's done, but someday he'll know what he's become.”

The commencement address was delivered by Dr. Derek Davidson, senior lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Appalachian State University.

“What you are doing is worthy of our admiration and emulation,” said Dr. Davidson. “You are men who have taken your fate by the lapels and shaken a new name out of them.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here