BPI students at chalkboard
News | College Behind Bars

PBS chronicles 12 [incarcerated students] who value education in ‘College Behind Bars’

BPI alumni Jule Hall and Salih Israil, who are featured in College Behind Bars, spoke with Patrice Gaines along with the film’s director, Lynn Novick. This article, reproduced below, first appeared in NBC News.   The film fills the screen with stories about human transformation as… Read More 

Dyjuan Tatro speaking on stage.
News | Alumni Advocacy

The Right to Learn Behind Bars: Encouraging College in Prison Reduces Recidivism and Helps Society

BPI alumnus Dyjuan Tatro ’18, government affairs officer for the Bard Prison Initiative, recently penned an op-ed on the value of investing public funds in college in prison. This article, reproduced below, first appeared in the New York Daily News.   Read the full article below: The… Read More 

News | Alumni News

Vulture: In College Behind Bars, Prisoners Step Into the Classroom

Ted Alcorn writes about BPI Alumnus Rodney Spivey-Jones’s ('17) unique experience of watching himself in a screening of the documentary film College Behind Bars, behind bars. The article, reproduced below, first appeared in Vulture, from New York Magazine.  From the article: Spivey-Jones had already seen earlier… Read More 

Darren Mack
News | Alumni Advocacy

Access to higher ed for incarcerated students is essential to criminal justice reform

As College Behind Bars puts a spotlight on the issue of college in prison, 25 years after the removal of Pell Grants for people in prison, BPI Alumnus Darren Mack '13 shares his thoughts on higher education’s role in criminal justice reform and the… Read More 

Giovannie Hernandez
News | Alumni Advocacy

Op-Ed: Formerly incarcerated student: Society owes men and women in prison chance to return whole

PBS documentary shows how higher education helped me remove the shackles of incarceration. College degrees in prison can do the same for others.   I am choosing to publicly out myself as a convicted felon in this column. Let me tell you why. In March of… Read More 

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