Josie Duffy Rice and co-host Derecka Purnell are joined by Dyjuan Tatro and Wesley Caines to talk about education in prisons.
On this episode of Justice in America, Josie Duffy Rice and her co-host Derecka Purnell talk about education in prisons. They’ll discuss the impact of having access to education, the dire lack of available programming, and what happened to prison education after the 1994 crime bill. They’re joined by Dyjuan Tatro and Wesley Caines, alumni of the Bard Prison Initiative. The Bard Prison Initiative is a college program offered through Bard College in six New York State prisons. It’s also the subject of a critically acclaimed new documentary series on PBS, called College Behind Bars.
Listen to podcasts below:
Episode 29: Schools in Prison
Read the full transcript here.
Dyjuan Tatro and Wes Caines’ Book Recommendations
Dyjuan Tatro’s Guest Book recommendation: Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair by Danielle Sered
Wes Caines’ Guest Book recommendation: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Justice in America is available on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Sticher, Spotify, and LibSyn RSS.
Bonus: Interviewing the creators of College Behind Bars
In this bonus episode, Josie Duffy Rice and her co-host Derecka Purnell talk to Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, the creators of College Behind Bars. College Behind Bars, which was directed by Novick and produced by Botstein, is a four-episode documentary series about the Bard Prison Initiative, one of the most innovative and challenging prison education programs in the country. Josie and Derecka talk to Sarah and Lynn about the years they spent making the film, what they learned, and the future of prison education in America.
Read the full transcript here.
Additional Resources:
- To watch College Behind Bars, find out more at PBS. You can also watch it on Netflix.
- More information about BPI can be found here.
- The Prison Policy Initiative has a wealth of resources on education in prisons.
- For more information about programs that currently exist, check out the Prison Studies Project, which can be found here.
