I recently heard about an incredible program at Bard College. It’s called the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), and since 2001, it has offered credit-bearing courses toward undergraduate degrees for inmates at five of New York’s maximum security prisons. Bard’s professors teach the courses; Bard… Read More
Press Type: OpEds (Endorsements)
Locked Out of Higher Education
As a collaborative program bringing the instructional resources of Wesleyan University to the maximum security Cheshire Correctional Institute in Connecticut en Read More
College Ivy Sprouts at a Connecticut Prison
Inmates’ access to higher education was sharply crimped by a 1994 crime bill that made them ineligible for federal grants. But last spring, two Wesleyan University students persuaded the university to embark on a daring experiment that brings an elite college education inside a… Read More
Liberal Arts, Behind Bars
Wesleyan University plans to start offering for-credit courses for prisoners. Read More
Uncaptive Minds
Ian Buruma recounts his experience teaching at Eastern New York Correctional Facility as part of Bard Prison Initiative; describes his expectations versus reality in diverse class of students he found there; rise--and demise after 1995 vote in Congress to eliminate Pell Grants for inmates--of… Read More