Reimagining the place of higher education. By signing up for BPI emails, you are agreeing to receive news and updates from BPI. TATRO: You know, one of the great things about, you know, Bard is that it's recognized that it's not enough just to, you know, kind of issue a degree and give someone an education, send them back out into society. For 26 years, BPI joined other advocates in championing the return of Pell eligibility for incarcerated students. Since its first cohort in 2001, BPI students have earned over 52,000 credits and more than 550 Bard College degrees. You got to go back to your - I guess to your cell - right? How College in Prison Turns Around Lives and Saves Taxpayers Money, Knowledge & Redemption, A Conversation with Lynn Novick and Jule Hall, Incarcerated People Can Do More than Beat Harvard in a Debate. (Video Courtesy ESPN, Monday Night Countdown. And then you say, oh, this is my reality. They love the Bard Prison Initiative. Colleges or universities partnering in the Consortium. And, you know, we came to feel that it was important for them to - and they also felt it was important for them to explain themselves, how they see themselves, where they've been, where they are, through the lens of the education that they've been getting and their perspectives that have shifted over time. It is a marvelous new film by @KenBurns, @LynnNovick, and @sbotstein! As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Become a BPI supporter today and join a passionate community that believes in the power of education. Rodney has been incarcerated for 17 years and is currently incarcerated at Fishkill. I wake up every morning and I realize Im free and Im just so grateful to be here.. It raises questions we urgently need to address: What is prison for? NOVICK: I'd just add that one of the really remarkable things about this program is that the admissions process is looking for people who have kind of intellectual curiosity and determination. DAVIES: It's to literally count to ensure that every inmate is is accounted for. Yoon and Tatro earned college degrees taking rigorous courses taught by Bard College faculty in a maximum-security prison. DYJUAN TATRO: You know, one of the most salient moments for me in my time in BPI is my first time walking in to the Bard library at Eastern Correctional Facility. YOON: I would say that all my friends right now are my peers from the BPI program, and our network is really growing. There are counts. For now, the roughly 300 students taking . So I grew up in Flushing, Queens. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. Because when people ask that question or that question's being asked, that's usually the implicit assumption, that they are only capable of this level of education. Like, that's who I am. Max is the founder and executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative, and Rodney received his bachelor's degree from Bard College in 2017 through the Bard Prison Initiative. Did you feel yourself changing as you moved through these courses? And I just want to - after the euphoria of graduation, I mean, you certainly - you know, you had this terrific asset, this college degree that a lot of ex-offenders don't. We will hear Sebastian Yoon first and then we'll hear Dyjuan Tatro. The faculty generally find this experience so energizing because of that exact thing - that they have to sort of - if they're teaching a course on the Bard campus and in BPI, they actually have to make the BPI version a bit harder, get more assignments and, you know, up the reading because the students are just so eager for the material and expect so much. I mean, both - from the documentary, it seems that both of you had supportive families. I wish you continued success. Yoon and Tatro both entered prison as teenagers, and both earned bachelor's degrees in the Bard Prison Initiative. I went on to work for Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney on his attorney general campaign here in New York. "College Behind Bars" airs tonight and tomorrow night on PBS stations. Rodney, Sebastian and Giovannie embark on yearlong senior, The debate union faces Harvard. how to remove headrest chrysler 200; super license points tracker 2022; did bette davis play the piano in deception; fiat ducato motorhome for sale on ebay; where is curly bill buried TATRO: Yeah. Were they all like that, Lynn? I had to show my passion. So just to have normal kind of conversation, people have to literally yell back and forth. Our guests today are Lynn Novick, who directed the documentary, and two graduates of the program, Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro. Theres not many bathtubs that can accommodate me, but I have a bathtub that partially can, as long as I put my legs up on the wall. BPIs newest initiative, the Bard Microcollege, expands yet further the scope and impact of this work, delivering high-quality liberal arts education to communities outside of prison through partnerships with community-based institutions. Celebrating 200+ degrees in six graduations back in person with Congressman Bobby Rush. (SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "COLLEGE BEHIND BARS"). Learn more about Pell restoration on our blog. Born Behind Bars is a documentary series that takes place in a maximum-security prison in Indiana. And so I was a little bit intimidated by that. DAVIES: And your dad went through some really tough times, sent you to Korea when you were little 'cause he was trying to find a way to keep things together. Just putting together the course was challenging, and working with the students over the course of the eight weeks that we taught was thrilling. The students have a quite impressive breadth of curriculum. Well, you know, for a number of the graduates - and this was true of Sebastian, not Dyjuan - there was this - there's this terrible paradox where, you know, the fact that you are completing your college degree and graduating doesn't mean that you are released from prison. And I started to respond with violence because I thought I had no other option. danville jail mugshots; marlin 1898 stock; And that's - Pell grants are supposed to be based on economic need. I'm done. But as we got to know the students, we began to understand the circumstances of their lives, which, as you say, were complicated, sometimes tragic, often involved exposure to violence and other tragic experiences. Tune in for an unparalleled look inside @BPIBard, one of the most rigorous & challenging #CollegeInPrison programs. We're in the business of education. They have both been to prison. They appear in the PBS documentary "College Behind Bars," directed by Lynn Novick. One of the toughest parts of living in Sunnyside, Mr. Hall said, is finding a vacant laundry machine. Who among us is capable of academic excellence? Factory jobs are disappearing in this country year after year. College Behind Bars remains - especially in the first episode - admirably focused on the practicalities of prison life and prison programmes. And so yeah, that is a huge impediment to trying to learn. Part of our job is to provide grants and support to other organizations and individuals who are working towards social justice reform. We always have to be mindful of how those people like myself are returning back to their communities and back to their families. So let's just listen to this. We see him, don't we? College Behind Bars first premiered Nov. 25, 2019 on PBS and has since then become popular among Netflix audiences. TATRO: And so I got to walk across the stage on Bard's Annandale campus with the other 400 students in my year in 2018. In early 2020 BPI began working with lawmakers to change Merit Board eligibility rules so that all incarcerated students can be eligible for early release based on earning college credits. Following the development of regulations issued by the US Department of Education, incarcerated students who are enrolled in approved programs are expected to be eligible for Pell in the 2023-2024 academic year. And what's incredible is that you can also serve as tutors, so you're constantly working with other students who are trying to obtain their associate's degrees or bachelor's. GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. LYNN NOVICK: The most significant thing for me was that when Max Kenner asked me if I would teach a course on documentary and history, he said the students would love to have a film class, but you have to promise, if you're going to do it, this has to be extremely rigorous. The Residency leads to an ongoing community of practice that builds on over a decade of cultivating a nationwide network of leading universities and colleges in the field, through the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison. Neither had been in a maximum security . And then I came to crave it more and more. When that door closes, you're at Bard College. This movement took on renewed urgency following Congresss reinstatement of Pell Grant access to incarcerated students in 2020. As they begin their studies at Eastern and Taconic Correctional facilities, they discover that they will be held to the same high standards as Bard College students on the main campus in Annandale-on-Hudson. In this era of mass incarceration, America is the world's largest jailer, with more than 2 million men and women behind bars; 630,000 are released annually, and nearly 50 percent end up back in . to What will the field of college-in-prison look like? I'm going to ask each of you to give me your first impressions here. YOON: My family has been super supportive of me, as you'll see in the documentary, especially my father. Lynn Novick's 'College Behind Bars,' four-hour PBS documentary about the Bard Prison Initiative and the impact of educational programs as part of prison reform, is provocative and inspiring. I'm Terry Gross. People were invested in this. Otherwise, you're not doing them any favors. TATRO: And, you know, I'll just add that we have been - we have done screenings in prisons from California to Massachusetts. You know, I would go in and do all the work in a day or two, and the expectations were really, really low. Tried as an adult for his involvement in the fight, Mr. Hall was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. I had to understand the idea of hubris, and I had to understand the idea of tragedy, and I had to understand these concepts. It was just a really, really moving moment to be celebrated on the main Bard campus in that way by all these amazing young people. Read the Interview in Mother Jones Post Date: 12-11-2019 WebCollege Behind Bars, which airs on PBS Monday and Tuesday night, offers TV audiences a rare window into the U.S. correctional system. For 22 years he didnt have one. And then this changed in the . So you can be in class midway, and if the bell rings because the count was off or if there's a security problem, then you have to go back to your cells. I'm just interested in your perspective on this because I'm just - I imagine that, in a maximum security facility, there are a lot of folks who just didn't have kind of the educational kind of foundation to do college work the way you did, or maybe I'm wrong about that. Are children allowed in Turkish prisons? Funding provided by Bank of America, Ford Foundation / JustFilms, National Endowment for the Humanities, Meg & Tomas Bergstrand, Regina K. Scully, The Lise Strickler & Mark Gallogly Charitable Fund, a fund at The New York Community Trust, Patty Quillin through the Meadow Fund at Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Barbara & Richard Novick, Chicken & Egg Pictures, The William H. Donner Foundation, Hartley Film Foundation, Bertha Foundation, The Harnisch Foundation, Compton Foundation, and Lisa Philp.And members of The Better Angels Society: John & Catherine Debs, The Cousins Foundation, Inc., Abrams Foundation, Schwartz/Reisman Foundation, Ted Dintersmith & Elizabeth Hazard, McCloskey Family Charitable Trust, and Donna & Dick Strong. While my clothes are in the washer, because its right across the street from me, Ill run back upstairs and start cleaning my apartment for the week. college behind bars where are they now. Also with us are Dyjuan Tatro and Sebastian Yoon, graduates of the program. And the Bard Prison Initiative has had 600 graduates be released over the last 20 years. DAVIES: Wow, that's really remarkable. The series College Behind Bars aired on PBS on November 25 and 26 and is now available for free streaming on PBS.org through the end of January. And I remember walking in and seeing men like me in prison uniforms, except that they were speaking Mandarin. All these things are intersecting and overlapping. YOON: Yeah. TATRO: Sure. TURN ON THE TAP NY PRAISES GOVERNOR HOCHUL FOR INCLUDING TUITION ASSISTANCE FOR INCARCERATED NEW YORKERS IN BUDGET But in reality, out here, the degrees matter. The Bard Prison Initiative enrolls over 300 incarcerated students in six New York State prisons. So, you know, Bard has some re-entry services, mainly job placement and career development. College Behind Bars, a four-part documentary film series directed by award-winning filmmaker Lynn Novick, produced by Sarah Botstein, and executive produced by Ken Burns, tells the story of a small group of incarcerated men and women struggling to earn college degrees and turn their lives around in one of the most rigorous and effective prison education programs in the United States the Bard Prison Initiative. Learn more about this important amendment to the Merit Board rules, and its disproportionate impact on incarcerated women, on our blog. Now, I still havent taken to wine. When Bard Prison Initiative Students Debated Harvard. It teaches you how smart you are. So it totally enthralled me and motivated me to go after this education with pure zeal. Who among us is capable of academic excellence? A new PBS documentary series tells the story of one program that's offering a rigorous liberal arts education inside maximum security prisons with encouraging results. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. And I was bullied a lot. YOON: My fellow graduates, my friends, let me remind you that we have an obligation to share our stories and to uphold the idea that if we wish to have a better world, as we all do, then we must first change ourselves. I don't think I heard anybody use that as an excuse for committing crimes, though. As you will see in the film, there's tremendous potential among incarcerated people. TATRO: You know, I think that we want to have as many opportunities open to people in prison as possible. It took me six years to get from where I was to where Bard was. And I want to play a clip here. We should not expect that they are only capable of vocational training. What you see at the end is a testament to the power of education, and why it remains such a dangerous and underrated weapon against a racially and economically unjust status quo in this nation., The powerful new miniseries suggests we might find hope in the transformative effect of higher education., [A] nuanced look at education in the prison industrial complex., An important educational call to arms. In 1993, Mr. Hall, then 17, was involved in a gunfight in Brooklyn, when a bullet fired toward him killed his neighbor instead. And I think - I was lonely. college behind bars where are they now. And they thrust you right back into prison. DAVIES: And that's from the documentary "College Behind Bars," directed by our guest Lynn Novick. GLOBAL DINNER SCENE I eat out on Sunday another thing Im privileged to do because of my job. And then this changed in the '90s when we had the crime bill, right? In spring 2021 the NYS legislature passed the bill, and it was signed into law in July 2021. So it's just - it's really an open question. "We all have. Mr. Hall is the first formerly incarcerated person to be hired full-time by the Ford. In four years of study they become scholars, shatter stereotypes, reckon with their pasts, and prepare to return to society. You may change your parameters at any time using the link found at the bottom of every email. Please consider giving a gift to support BPIs groundbreaking work to redefine college access in America and to counter the harm of mass incarceration. Taking rigorous courses taught by Bard College faculty in a maximum-security prison in Indiana Hall the... On economic need of prison life and prison programmes to address: What is prison?! See in the Bard prison Initiative enrolls over 300 incarcerated students in graduations. College-In-Prison look like I realize Im free and Im just so grateful to be hired full-time by the.! 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