Second Chance Prom Debuts in Beckham Hall With CPE

Prom is universally known as a night filled with dancing, ill-fitting formal wear, and a certain chance to make lasting memories. However, many young Americans who experience incarceration in their youth do not get the chance to participate in this classic high school tradition. On Saturday, Sept. 19, Reentry Solutions CT hosted a formal dance and social event, “Second Chance Prom: No Place Like Home,” at Beckham Hall in association with the University’s Center for Prison Education (CPE). The event was directed towards formerly incarcerated individuals and their guests. 

The CPE was founded in 2009 by University students and enrolled its first cohort from Cheshire Correctional Institution the same year. In 2013, the initiative expanded to include York Correctional Institution, Connecticut’s only state prison designated for women. Through the program’s tenure, 20 students have earned Bachelor of Liberal Studies degrees from Wesleyan and 60 students have earned associate’s degrees at Middlesex Community College.

Reentry Solutions CT (Reentry) is an organization dedicated to assisting “individuals in Connecticut returning to society after facing challenges, past lifestyles, or incarceration,” and works towards reconnecting people with their communities and providing adequate access to resources for their successful reintegration back into society. 

“We thought our kickoff event should be not only like a homecoming, but let’s make it a prom for those that didn’t get to celebrate,” Mary Valdovinos, Reentry Board Secretary and one of its founding members said. “But essentially, it is a welcome home.”

The event provided an opportunity for invitees to dress up for the occasion, socialize with other individuals with shared experiences, and enjoy a night of dancing and music. 

The event, brainchild of Robin Ledbetter ’19, a former CPE student and Program Compliance Director at Reentry, drew inspiration for its theme from “The Wizard of Oz.” 

“There’s so much stuff that people who are coming home are doing, so much positive stuff, [making] so much change,” Ledbetter said. “I really wanted us to create a space [where] people could just really celebrate [and] really enjoy themselves…. When I was growing up, and I watched ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ for me, the underlying thing of this magic place [was] that you have to get [there] in order to get back home, or to acquire freedom, or whatever the metaphor it is that you want to use—but ultimately the ability to do it is within yourself the entire time.”

Tracie Bernardi Guzman, Founder and CEO of Reentry, added that the event was funded via a grant from the University.

“[Ledbetter] brought it to our board, and we loved it, and we brought it to our advisory board, and they loved it,” Guzman said.  “And we just decided to bring it to life, but we could not have done it without the Wesleyan CPE program.”

Guzman shared how the event related to her own experience.

“A lot of people [who] were incarcerated [are] like myself: I served 23 years in prison, went in at a young age at age 19, and I never got to go to my own prom,” Guzman said. “So this is a beautiful opportunity for all of us. A lot of people, even if they got to go to their prom, [were] under trauma, drugs, [or] alcohol that kept them from really having the full experience. So to be able to do this tonight is amazing.”

The event also featured speeches from Gus Marks-Hamilton, a Licensed Master Social Worker with the ACLU of Connecticut, and Ledbetter, who were crowned prom king and queen, respectively.

“I’ve been involved with a lot of legislative advocacy around trying to reform the way the criminal legal system treats people,” Marks-Hamilton said in an interview with The Argus. “I think people too often don’t get enough opportunities when they pay their debt to society. They’ve earned an opportunity to be able to move on with their lives, but the way our system is set up right now, it really holds people back and doesn’t allow people to become their prosperous potential selves after finishing [their sentence]. I think an event like this really speaks to the potential that people have of being able to grow beyond whatever they’ve managed to overcome in their lives.”

In addition to candy boxes fashioned in the style of Dorothy’s ruby slippers, emerald decorations, candlelit tables, the prom was staffed by CPE Teaching Apprentices and Research Partners and soundtracked by a DJ playing famous dance hits.

Tray Sanchez ’27, a program assistant for the CPE and army veteran, discussed his experience with the program and giving back to the community.

“I grew up in Waterbury, which is one of the more financially depressed cities in [Connecticut] and I drove by Cheshire Correctional [Institution] all the time…. So [being involved with the CPE] just feels like a sort of a way to give back to my community,” Sanchez said. “I think service is very important, and I think there’s a wide range of things that count as service, and this kind of falls under that umbrella.”

Sanchez reflected on how his age has allowed him to more easily act as a go-between for the teaching apprentices and the Department of Correction.

“I handle a lot of the administrative work that has to do with Cheshire, like the low end stuff, not the big end stuff,” Sanchez said. “The biggest thing is just acting as a conduit between the TAs, the program, [and] the DOC inside the facility. I think since I’m older, it’s just easier for me to be the one that talks to the DOC as opposed to having a TA do that.”

Mary Valdovinos, founding member of Reentry and current member of its Board of Directors, highlighted that Reentry is staffed solely by formerly incarcerated women, who do work for the organization in addition to their full-time jobs. Valdovinos also works as an Outreach & Engagement Specialist for Entry Point Staffing.

“Some of our work does include legislative advocacy, community grassroots organizing, [and] coalition building. One of our major programs [is] a women’s virtual support group [for] formerly incarcerated women,” Valdovinos said, adding that they do also help men. “We don’t want to exclude anyone, but we know that we have faced a particular plight that not everyone else can relate to. We really want to make these inclusive spaces and do more outreach.”

Marks-Hamilton, who has spent over a decade in legislative advocacy, echoed the sentiment.

“There’s something particularly distinctive about the experience that women have when they’re locked up in the correctional system that’s separate from the experience that men have,” Marks-Hamilton said. “There’s only one correctional facility in the state for women, so they all know each other really well, and they form relationships that are a lot different than what the men do when they’re locked up. It’s interesting and really inspiring to see women [who] knew each other on the inside [being] able to come out and get back together with each other, support each other, love each other, [and] throw an event like this. It’s really inspiring.”

Janhavi Munde contributed reporting.

Raiza Goel can be reached at rgoel@wesleyan.edu.

Akari Ikeda can be reached at aikeda@wesleyan.edu.