Giving Back
By Roxane Latrèche
As a student walking around the bustling Activities Fair during Frosh Week at Princeton, it was hard for me not to be intrigued by the volunteering project that is the Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance program. Tutoring inmates at a correctional facility once a week seemed like a very unusual way for students to give back to society. I found myself curious as to the origin of this project. It was only weeks later, when I had the privilege of sitting down and interviewing Jim Farrin, the Princeton alumnus who launched the Petey Greene program in 2007, that I got my answer.
Jim is the only child of a US Navy Officer and loving mother who traveled all throughout Jim’s childhood. As a result, he attended 13 schools in 12 years. A good student and excellent tennis player, he graduated in 1958 from Princeton University with a major in Political Science. Already interested in the prison system, he wrote his senior thesis on a judge named Benjamin Barr Linsey who promoted rehabilitation and higher trust in inmates by minimizing the role of guards. Little did he know at the time that his work on prison rehabilitation would come back into his life down the road.
He went on to receive an MBA from Stanford Business School and won the Northern California Tennis tournament. He then moved to New York where he married Marianne Majers and started in an international training program at Colgate Palmolive in marketing.
This marked the start of a worldwide journey with his wife and later 5 children, working as a business-man all over the world living in London, Mexico, and Paris. As he jumped from one year-long project to the next, his work principles remained the same, constantly stressing the importance of traits like honesty, respect and humility. He was so modest in fact that he refused the company car when he moved to Paris.
Eventually, Jim moved back to the US, and took on his last corporate assignment in New Jersey at Mennen International as president of the international division. After having worked there for 4 years, something very profound happened which “changed his view of the world”. At an international meeting of general managers, Jim was asked to give the final speech. Standing before a group of 30 managers, he “couldn’t get anything out” and started to cry. Looking out into the audience, Jim had come to a realization. He realized that the culture of the business world was not the right one for him anymore. A few minutes of silence passed, and then he went and sat down. After a career as a tough manager, he was suddenly feeling all these emotions. Although he continued working at Mennen for 1 more year, this event marked the beginning of the end of his corporate career. Eventually, Jim retired from the business world and began to look for a more meaningful career.
One day, in the fall of 2007, after he had moved back to Princeton, he received a call from a Princeton classmate, Charlie Puttkammer; Charlie had some money that he wanted to give through the Rockefeller foundation to start a program at Princeton which would take Princeton students to a prison. Jim, skeptical at first, explained that he would try to help, but that he was “too busy”. A few hours later, his wife attended a reunion during which she met a man from the Wagner Correctional Facility; he was desperately looking for volunteers. When Jim’s wife told him that a man from the local prison was looking for volunteers, he became convinced that this coincidence was “much bigger than him, it was divine providence at work.” This was an amazing opportunity for him to apply his life motto: give back. This was the opportunity to run the project Puttkammer wanted him to.
He contacted the Pace Center, a civic engagement at Princeton, a month later with his project idea to have Princeton students tutor inmates at the local prison. Unfortunately, the students were considered “too busy” and even though he was allowed to post an ad in the newsletter, no one expected it to be a success.
However, in the time it took for Jim to walk back to his house, 2 people had already responded to the project. A week later, 30 students had shown up.
Today, the program comprises 50 student volunteers from Princeton as well as 8 community members, in addition to 44 volunteers from the College of New Jersey. These volunteers devote 3 hours per week to tutoring the 18 to 30-year-old inmates from the Wagner Youth Correctional and Garden State Facilities. The volunteers teach GED preparation and Adult Basic Education courses in art history, mathematics and writing, which allow the inmates to receive certificates and help them integrate into credit-bearing programs.
Jim’s life philosophy had always been “learn, earn, return”; learning through education, earning through achievement, and returning through giving back. As the opportunity has presented itself through his prison program, he has decided to give back to this forgotten segment of society. As illiteracy affects 35% of prison population, Jim feels that these inmates’ only ticket out of their situations is education, which will increase their self-esteem through achievement. Education will encourage them to have a goal once they come back to society, something Jim found essential as he recovered from colon cancer in 2000 and decided to take on the New York Marathon.
One of Jim’s greatest joys is seeing the results that come out of his program. An inmate from the Mountain View Prison Unit who was involved in an Art program received a scholarship to study at Rutgers University where he achieved a 3.92 GPA. This man is only one example of the many inmates who succeeded after being offered the opportunity to learn.
This success reflects that of Petey Greene, the man after whom the program is named. An ex-convict sentenced to ten years of imprisonment for armed robbery, Petey used his eloquence to reduce his prison sentence. After leaving prison, Greene devoted himself to encouraging people to watch the choices they make, and founded an activist organization devoted to helping former prisoners.
Beyond helping prisoners, one of Jim’s goals for the program was to help Princeton students challenge themselves by helping the inmates through this unusual teaching relationship. Because of this, the program does not only benefit the inmates; in the process of tutoring, many Princeton students have fallen in love with the program and found it personally fulfilling. Almost every day of the week, different Princeton students return to campus excitedly with the knowledge that through this program, they’ve made a difference in the lives of others.
Today Jim’s program is expanding to other colleges across New Jersey. He talks of ambitions to one day expand nationally. He sees the tremendous impact his program can have. He’s seen inmates given the gift of opportunity, and students given the opportunity to learn so much themselves. And as he shares his hopes and aspirations for this remarkable program he has grown, you can’t help but admire him for his tremendous dedication to the idea of giving back.
As a student walking around the bustling Activities Fair during Frosh Week at Princeton, it was hard for me not to be intrigued by the volunteering project that is the Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance program. Tutoring inmates at a correctional facility once a week seemed like a very unusual way for students to give back to society. I found myself curious as to the origin of this project. It was only weeks later, when I had the privilege of sitting down and interviewing Jim Farrin, the Princeton alumnus who launched the Petey Greene program in 2007, that I got my answer.
Jim is the only child of a US Navy Officer and loving mother who traveled all throughout Jim’s childhood. As a result, he attended 13 schools in 12 years. A good student and excellent tennis player, he graduated in 1958 from Princeton University with a major in Political Science. Already interested in the prison system, he wrote his senior thesis on a judge named Benjamin Barr Linsey who promoted rehabilitation and higher trust in inmates by minimizing the role of guards. Little did he know at the time that his work on prison rehabilitation would come back into his life down the road.
He went on to receive an MBA from Stanford Business School and won the Northern California Tennis tournament. He then moved to New York where he married Marianne Majers and started in an international training program at Colgate Palmolive in marketing.
This marked the start of a worldwide journey with his wife and later 5 children, working as a business-man all over the world living in London, Mexico, and Paris. As he jumped from one year-long project to the next, his work principles remained the same, constantly stressing the importance of traits like honesty, respect and humility. He was so modest in fact that he refused the company car when he moved to Paris.
Eventually, Jim moved back to the US, and took on his last corporate assignment in New Jersey at Mennen International as president of the international division. After having worked there for 4 years, something very profound happened which “changed his view of the world”. At an international meeting of general managers, Jim was asked to give the final speech. Standing before a group of 30 managers, he “couldn’t get anything out” and started to cry. Looking out into the audience, Jim had come to a realization. He realized that the culture of the business world was not the right one for him anymore. A few minutes of silence passed, and then he went and sat down. After a career as a tough manager, he was suddenly feeling all these emotions. Although he continued working at Mennen for 1 more year, this event marked the beginning of the end of his corporate career. Eventually, Jim retired from the business world and began to look for a more meaningful career.
One day, in the fall of 2007, after he had moved back to Princeton, he received a call from a Princeton classmate, Charlie Puttkammer; Charlie had some money that he wanted to give through the Rockefeller foundation to start a program at Princeton which would take Princeton students to a prison. Jim, skeptical at first, explained that he would try to help, but that he was “too busy”. A few hours later, his wife attended a reunion during which she met a man from the Wagner Correctional Facility; he was desperately looking for volunteers. When Jim’s wife told him that a man from the local prison was looking for volunteers, he became convinced that this coincidence was “much bigger than him, it was divine providence at work.” This was an amazing opportunity for him to apply his life motto: give back. This was the opportunity to run the project Puttkammer wanted him to.
He contacted the Pace Center, a civic engagement at Princeton, a month later with his project idea to have Princeton students tutor inmates at the local prison. Unfortunately, the students were considered “too busy” and even though he was allowed to post an ad in the newsletter, no one expected it to be a success.
However, in the time it took for Jim to walk back to his house, 2 people had already responded to the project. A week later, 30 students had shown up.
Today, the program comprises 50 student volunteers from Princeton as well as 8 community members, in addition to 44 volunteers from the College of New Jersey. These volunteers devote 3 hours per week to tutoring the 18 to 30-year-old inmates from the Wagner Youth Correctional and Garden State Facilities. The volunteers teach GED preparation and Adult Basic Education courses in art history, mathematics and writing, which allow the inmates to receive certificates and help them integrate into credit-bearing programs.
Jim’s life philosophy had always been “learn, earn, return”; learning through education, earning through achievement, and returning through giving back. As the opportunity has presented itself through his prison program, he has decided to give back to this forgotten segment of society. As illiteracy affects 35% of prison population, Jim feels that these inmates’ only ticket out of their situations is education, which will increase their self-esteem through achievement. Education will encourage them to have a goal once they come back to society, something Jim found essential as he recovered from colon cancer in 2000 and decided to take on the New York Marathon.
One of Jim’s greatest joys is seeing the results that come out of his program. An inmate from the Mountain View Prison Unit who was involved in an Art program received a scholarship to study at Rutgers University where he achieved a 3.92 GPA. This man is only one example of the many inmates who succeeded after being offered the opportunity to learn.
This success reflects that of Petey Greene, the man after whom the program is named. An ex-convict sentenced to ten years of imprisonment for armed robbery, Petey used his eloquence to reduce his prison sentence. After leaving prison, Greene devoted himself to encouraging people to watch the choices they make, and founded an activist organization devoted to helping former prisoners.
Beyond helping prisoners, one of Jim’s goals for the program was to help Princeton students challenge themselves by helping the inmates through this unusual teaching relationship. Because of this, the program does not only benefit the inmates; in the process of tutoring, many Princeton students have fallen in love with the program and found it personally fulfilling. Almost every day of the week, different Princeton students return to campus excitedly with the knowledge that through this program, they’ve made a difference in the lives of others.
Today Jim’s program is expanding to other colleges across New Jersey. He talks of ambitions to one day expand nationally. He sees the tremendous impact his program can have. He’s seen inmates given the gift of opportunity, and students given the opportunity to learn so much themselves. And as he shares his hopes and aspirations for this remarkable program he has grown, you can’t help but admire him for his tremendous dedication to the idea of giving back.