For 25 years, the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) has been a national leader in restoring and expanding college opportunity in American prisons, transforming the negative impacts of criminal punishment while creating radical inroads and building alliances to rethink access, eliminate cost, and redress inequities in higher education.
BPI’s college-in-prison:
- Enrolls over 400 incarcerated students…
- Across seven correctional facilities…
- And has conferred 850+ degrees from Bard College since its inception.
BPI supports its students through a rigorous course of study — which matches the breadth and intensity of the Bard College learning experience — and beyond, to identify ways that a liberal arts degree can carry forward into long-term plans.
Our work and mission have expanded beyond College-in-Prison as well…
BPI established the Bard Microcollege and BardBaccalaureate to bring full-scholarship, academically rigorous liberal arts college to isolated communities outside of prison.
BPI’s Reentry & Alumni Affairs team works with formerly incarcerated Bard alumni as they pursue robust civic and professional lives after returning home.
BPI launched the national Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison to cultivate, support, and establish college-in-prison programs in partnership with colleges and universities across the country.
BPI hosts an annual BPI Summer Residency, a new model for supporting the growing field of college-in-prison, a unique site of technical assistance and professional development built on over two decades of direct practitioner experience, led by BPI subject matter experts from across the BPI staff and alumni community.
Want to learn more about BPI? Watch the film!
Stream All Episodes for FreeCollege Behind Bars, a four-part documentary directed and produced by Lynn Novick, shares an intimate look at the lives and experiences of a dozen BPI students. The film shows how BPI challenges conventional wisdom about the purpose of both education and incarceration.
If you’re ready to support BPI today, your donation will help us continue the groundbreaking work to redefine college access in America, address the harms of mass incarceration, and reimagine the place — and future — of higher education.
Donate NowFor more information about how your support helps the Bard Prison Initiative operate, please visit Your Impact, or contact [email protected].
