By Dyjuan Tatro Opinion Contributor The movement for criminal justice reform in New York has made some progress lately. The Legislature eliminated cash bail for most low-level offenses and passed broad discovery and speedy trial reforms. The governor has begun to grant clemency, albeit in a… Read More
Press Highlights from ‘College Behind Bars’
BPI alumni and staff have been traveling around the country with the filmmakers engaging in conversations about 'College Behind Bars' and their experiences at BPI and beyond.
Thank you for having us, Washington DC, Los Angeles, New Haven, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Baltimore, New York, San Francisco, Indianapolis, the Indiana Women’s Prison, San Quentin, MCI Concord and everyone that has hosted us!
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Op-Eds
Op-Ed – Access to higher ed for incarcerated students is essential to criminal justice reform
by Darren Mack Opinion Contributor As I walked across the stage this year to graduate with my MSW at Hunter College, I thought about the incarcerated people I’ve left behind — especially those who grew up in any of the seven communities where over 70 percent of… Read More
Op-Ed – Some of my proudest accomplishments happened in prison. How should I talk about them?
By Alexander Hall Opinion Contributor Alexander Hall is a housing associate with the Bard Prison Initiative. When my day begins with my phone buzzing 10 times in a row, it’s usually a bad sign. This time was different. My friends were going wild because a follow-up story… Read More
Op-Ed – Former 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. by Giovannie Hernandez Opinion Contributor I am choosing to publicly out myself as a convicted felon in this column. Let me tell you why.In… Read More
An Insider’s Perspective
With fresh pens, sharpened pencils, and brand new composition notebooks, we took our seats in the classroom for the first day of Language and Thinking—not as inmates, but as classmates. The stress and tension that seem to burst through every crack and crevice of… Read More
Press Highlights
How Jule Hall, Graduate of the Bard Prison Initiative, Spends His Sundays
After serving 22 years in prison, he is making up for lost time, with a job at the Ford Foundation, good coffee and a long soak in the tub. By Ted Alcorn Few people know the joy of a free Sunday like Jule Hall. For 22… Read More
What Happens When Incarcerated People Get a World-Class Education?
One graduate, featured in a new PBS documentary, shares the ups and downs of earning a degree behind bars. In the fall of 2015, a maximum-security prison in New York invited Harvard’s debate team to compete against a squad of three incarcerated men. The men,… Read More
Incarcerated People Can Do More than Beat Harvard in a Debate
“College Behind Bars,” a new PBS documentary executive-produced by Ken Burns, shines a light on a program that every major university in America should be sponsoring By Jamil Smith When you watch College Behind Bars, which began last night on PBS and concludes tonight, or any… Read More
‘This Is a Story of Hope.’ New Documentary Series College Behind Bars Follows Men and Women Working to Gain College Degrees While in Prison
“Inside the walls of a classroom, you escape the walls of a cell — and you become an individual again.” So says Shawnta Montgomery, speaking at her graduation in the Bard Prison Initiative in College Behind Bars, the latest documentary project from Ken Burns… Read More
Review – “College Behind Bars” is a nuanced look at education in the prison industrial complex
PBS' four-hour series examines what it means to be a prisoner and a student in an effort to fix systemic injustice It’s a common nightmare for anyone who attended college: just as you’re preparing to sit down to write your undergraduate thesis, you reach for… Read More
‘College Behind Bars’: TV Review
Lynn Novick's four-hour PBS documentary about the Bard Prison Initiative and the impact of educational programs as part of prison reform is provocative and inspiring. It's rare that a week passes without some buried news story about states cutting back on prison education programs or… Read More
In College Behind Bars, Prisoners Step Into the Classroom
Rodney Spivey-Jones looked up at his face on the TV screen bolted high on the wall, but his attention was on the men around him. Garbed in green sweatshirts and canvas pants, they sat in seven rows of folding chairs in an otherwise vacant… Read More
PBS chronicles 12 inmates who value education in ‘College Behind Bars’
The film fills the screen with stories about human transformation as cameras follow a dozen incarcerated men and women as they try to earn college degrees. Jule Hall was 17 when he went to prison for being an accessory to homicide. For 11 years, he… Read More
‘Undoing a mistake’: Inside the push to bring college education back to prison
PHILADELPHIA – Stacks of books are organized meticulously by genre amid the chaos of a maximum security prison. A makeshift desk made from cardboard is placed over a sink in a cramped cell. A chalkboard is filled with Chinese symbols in a room filled with eager… Read More
‘College Behind Bars’ packs a rehabilitative punch
Gripping documentary spotlights Bard Prison Initiative When it comes to incarceration, the United States of America is far and away the global leader in all the major categories. Based on data compiled by watchdog organizations, such as World Prison Brief and the Prison Policy Initiative, the American criminal… Read More
How College In Prison Turns Around Lives And Saves Taxpayers Money
Anyone looking for something to watch over the Thanksgiving Holidays would do well to check out the inspiring and fascinating “College Behind Bars,” airing on PBS stations on November 25th. An extended trailer can be viewed here. The show focuses on one particular college-in-prison… Read More
Eagles’ Malcolm Jenkins supports ‘College Behind Bars,’ a prison documentary
NEW YORK — In between his busy football schedule, Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins sat in a room with alumni of the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), a program that allows men and women to work toward college degrees while incarcerated. He listened to the stories of the… Read More
Three Prison Inmates Beat Harvard in a Debate. Here’s What Happened Next.
When inmates in a New York maximum-security prison beat Harvard in a debate four years ago, their victory made international headlines and highlighted the intellectual talent behind bars. Now, the three debaters who outsmarted the Ivy Leaguers have a new round of accomplishments. Two have found professional footing after… Read More
PBS’s ‘College Behind Bars’ offers a lasting lesson: Learning is its own kind of freedom
Review Should prisoners get the chance to take college courses while serving time? Seems like a fine idea to me, but my heart tends to be big on these kinds of issues. Americans, in general, have frowned on it: The sweeping Violent Crime Control and Law… Read More
Broadcast & Radio Highlights
New PBS Documentary ‘College Behind Bars’ Explores Elite Education Program
A new PBS documentary series explores a program run by an elite East Coast college that offers degrees to a select group of incarcerated men and women. “College Behind Bars” focuses on the rigorous Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) and the struggles of the participants who… Read More
Incarcerated Men And Women Find Rehabilitation And Hope In ‘College Behind Bars’
A new PBS documentary series follows prisoners who earn college degrees while serving time. Director Lynn Novick and graduates Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro talk about how the program changes lives. Read More
Higher Education and Incarceration
The documentary filmmaker Lynn Novick and Jule Hall, a Bard College Prison Initiative alumni and program associate for the Ford Foundation, talk about Novick’s new film, “College Behind Bars.” Read More
#176 – Knowledge & Redemption
Listen to Podcast A Conversation with Lynn Novick and Jule Hall In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Lynn Novick about her four-part documentary College Behind Bars. The film follows the progress of students in the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) as… Read More
Episode #111: College Behind Bars
In the U.S., our prisons are full of people raised in the poorest neighborhoods, who only had access to the worst schools. So what happens when they can enter a first-class college program – inside prison? On this episode, Wesley Caines, an alum of the… Read More
Episode 70: College Behind Bars
Josh interviews Lynn Novick, Sarah Botstein, and Salih Israil about the PBS Documentary Series “College Behind Bars.” My Guests: Lynn Novick: Emmy, Peabody and Alfred I. duPont Columbia Award-winning documentary filmmaker. For 30 years she has been directing and producing landmark documentary films about American culture,… Read More
Ken Burns talks about his new documentary series ‘College Behind Bars’
Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns visits TODAY to talk about his latest documentary series, “College Behind Bars,” about men and women struggling to earn college degrees behind bars. He is joined by director Lynn Novick and Dyjuan Tatro, a former member of a prison debate… Read More
‘College Behind Bars’ PBS Documentary Shines A Light on Prison Education
The new four-part PBS documentary “College Behind Bars” examines what higher education looks like in New York State prisons — and the impact it has on incarcerated students. Lynn Novick produced and directed the film, and Ken Burns is an executive producer. Illinois Public… Read More
‘College Behind Bars’ Looks At The Transformative Potential Of Prison Education Programs
Filmmaker Lynn Novick’s new documentary “College Behind Bars,” set to air on PBS later this month, follows the journeys of men and women pursuing academic degrees while in prison. In doing so, it illustrates the life-changing nature of educational opportunity while also putting a… Read More
New Documentary ‘College Behind Bars’ Captures The Transformative Power Of A Prison Education
There are more than two million people incarcerated in the United States. Over two-thirds of them lack a high school diploma, and less than 13% have attended college. But where nearly half of all formerly incarcerated people return to prison within three years, the students… Read More
College Behind Bars: Documenting The Bard Prison Initiative’s Impact On Prisoners
There are approximately 54,000 people incarcerated in the state of New York alone, and 300 of them are trying to get college degrees through the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI). "College Behind Bars," a four-part documentary film series that follows prisoners who become students through BPI, will… Read More