Last week, the New York State budget included a major victory for educational equity, ending a 26-year-old ban on access to need-based Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) grants for incarcerated students. Having myself attended college while incarcerated, I can attest to the importance of the… Read More
Press Room
Press Contact:
For any press inquiries, please email bpipress@bard.edu.
College Behind Bars Press Kit
For further information about the PBS documentary College Behind Bars, go to Press Kit.
4/14/2022
Helping prisoners go to college helps New York
2/3/2022
‘Anything is possible.’ [Student] from Middletown won appeal after earning college, paralegal degree behind bars
A Middletown man and former convict is sharing his unconventional story of success in hopes of inspiring others, after earning his college and paralegal degree behind bars - and winning his own appeal. Derek Brown was 18 years old when a prison sentence for burglary… Read More
2/10/2021
WBAI’s On the Count – The Prison And Criminal Justice Report
In this episode, listen to an in-depth conversation with Max Kenner '01, alumnus Dyjuan Tatro '18, and Vivian Nixon, Executive Director of College & Community Fellowship who discuss the impact of federal Pell Grant restoration; what's next for TAP restoration in New York; the… Read More
10/16/2020
Freeing the Mind
Max Kenner recently sat down with Brent Orrell of the Hardly Working podcast to talk about BPI and the value of a liberal arts education in the 21st century. Listen here as they explore how higher education has largely failed to identify capacity wherever… Read More
9/3/2020
We Already Have a Tool That Lowers Crime, Saves Money and Shrinks the Prison Population
Dyjuan Tatro grew up in a poor neighborhood in Albany, N.Y., where gunshots were common and education inaccessible. Around 10th grade, Dyjuan dropped out and was selling drugs. A few years later, when he was 20, he was involved in a shooting and sentenced to… Read More
7/31/2020
BPI and College Behind Bars in The Appeal
The Appeal featured several segments about BPI in two Justice in America podcast episodes, as well as an op-ed. Check out more details below: 4/22/2019 Justice in America Episode 29: Schools in Prison Josie Duffy Rice and co-host Derecka Purnell are joined by Dyjuan Tatro '18 and… Read More
6/16/2020
College Behind Bars review – how education can unlock prisoners’ potential
This film following students of the Bard Prison Initiative is a tribute to their ambition and endeavour – and an indictment of the absence of funding for such programmes It should not be strange to hear prisoners talk about The Oresteia or Moby-Dick or eukaryotic cell structure… Read More
4/29/2020
Justice in America Episode 30: A Conversation with Rodney Spivey-Jones and Max Kenner
In this episode, Josie Duffy Rice and her producer, Florence Barrau-Adams, travel to Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, New York, to interview Rodney Spivey-Jones and Max Kenner about the Bard Prison Initiative and Bard College. In January 2020, Josie Duffy Rice and her producer, Florence… Read More
Press and media inquiries
For press inquiries contact: bpipress@bard.edu
BPI holds the copyright to all BPI produced media (audio, video, photographs). For non-BPI related permission or usage, please contact: bpipress@bard.edu