On December 5, 2024, Columbia University's Center for Justice premiered a short documentary at the Dances With Films Festival in New York. The film, Degrees of Freedom, won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Short Film.
Degrees of Freedom tells the story of women formerly incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, in Bedford Hills, New York, who refused to accept the revocation of the prison’s college program in the 1990s, and came together to bring the program back.
What blossomed from their organizing efforts was not only a widely emulated college program still in existence in New York State prisons, but a sisterhood of community care that continued for these women after prison, and found a home at Columbia through the Center for Justice. Tired of being overlooked, these women decided to document their own stories by producing, directing, and appearing in the film.
Redressing a Historical Wrong
Far too often and for far too long, women in prison have been defined by the state, media, and researchers, who have little first-hand knowledge of these women’s lived experiences or histories. Although women have constituted the fastest-growing incarcerated population since the 1980s, in the context of the onslaught of mass incarceration, they have represented a numeric minority. As a result, the unique experiences and needs of women in the criminal legal system are often ignored. Likewise, the successes of these women—particularly, women of color—who have been locked up and locked out of politics and civil society have been omitted from the historical record.
Degrees of Freedom is an attempt to set that record straight. The Center for Justice was founded in 2014 by Kathy Boudin and Cheryl Wilkins, both featured in the film, who reconnected when they came home from prison and shared a vision to equip students and faculty with the knowledge and skills to address the impact of incarceration on children, communities, and families. The center was later supported by Geraldine Downey, Robert Johnston Niven Professor of Humane Letters in Psychology, who serves as co-director. One way this vision has been achieved is through the annual Beyond the Bars Conference, which takes place at Columbia and is captured in the film.
Women Transcending
All of the women featured in Degrees of Freedom have since come home from prison and are now researchers, professors, and community advocates, and have developed a network of support for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women through the Women Transcending project at the Center for Justice. Degrees of Freedom is a product of the Women Transcending Oral History Research Project.
As Cheryl Wilkins said: “We knew that higher education would lower the recidivism rate, and we knew that if folks came out with a degree, the chances of them going back to prison in handcuffs were slim to none. Ironically, we do go back to prison, and we go back to prison to teach, to inspire, and to tell the women inside that there is a way to transform their lives, and it’s through higher education.”
