Extending A Hand To Neighbors In Prison Explored At Bedford Town Hall

BEDFORD, NY — There is a population of people in Bedford who are often unseen, but that doesn't mean that the community isn't thinking about its neighbors in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and the Taconic Correctional Facility.

The way this Westchester town has embraced those neighbors has become a model for communities around the globe. And it will be the topic of discussion at an upcoming special town hall meeting.

The Prison Relations Advisory Committee (PRAC) of the Town of Bedford says the April 14 meeting at 1 p.m. at Bedford Hills Community House, located at 74 Main St. in Bedford Hills, is open to all. The event will offer an opportunity to learn how the community became among the first in the country to implement the Interfaith Prison Partnership's Adopt-A-Prison event in 2019.

After a good deal of outreach and mutual trust, 17 different initiatives of PRAC have been allowed into the two NYS Women's Correctional Facilities in Bedford. The goal of the outreach is in part to remind those incarcerated neighbors that this community thinks of them, knows that they matter, and recognizes their value as human beings who, like the rest of us, are far better than the worst thing that they have done, organizers say.

Speakers will include dignitaries, elected officials and activists:

• NYS Senator Shelley Mayer
• NYS Senator Peter Harckham
• NYS Assemblymember Chris Burdick
• Bedford's Westchester County Legislator, Erika Lang Pierce
• Ellen Calves -Supervisor of the Town of Bedford
• Rev. Merle McJunkin - Pastor, Antioch Baptist Church
• Daniel Martuscello - Acting Commissioner of the Department of Correction and Community Supervision
• Emily Williams - Superintendent of the Taconic Correctional Facility
• Eileen Russell - Superintendent of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility (BHCF)
• Jennifer Mancuso - Director of Interfaith Prison Partnership
• Debra Rigano (or Alethea Taylor) - Hour Children
• Aileen Baumgartner - Marymount Manhattan College professor who runs the college program at BHCF
• Max Kerner - Bard Prison Initiative (college program at Taconic CF)
• Sean Pica - Hudson Link (college program at Taconic CF)
• Emily Bushnell - Endeavor Therapeutic Horsemanship Program
• Gloria Gilbert Stoga - Puppies Behind Bars
• Adina Williams - Caramoor Center for the Arts
• Leslie Lichter - RTA Interim Director
• Nancy Gernert - Woman2Woman
• Sharon Nunez - Exodus Transitional Communities
• Thomas Phillips - Women's Prison Association
• Jennifer Scaife - Correctional Association of New York
• Pamela Zimba - Lilac House

"So many of you have stood up when the community was asked to help by providing bars of soap (which we are still collecting!), items for Release Bags, items for Children's Activity Bags, and putting together Care Packages," organizers of the upcoming town hall meeting said. "We hope that you will join us for this inspirational afternoon where you will be given the opportunity to volunteer, interact, ask questions, and gain further understanding of the work that these organizations do to help many women whom society failed long before they ever committed a crime."