Last year, Reverend Dr. William Barber II delivered the commencement address at Eastern Correctional Facility. This week he wrote words of encouragement to the incarcerated BPI community during this time of crisis, which was included in this week's newsletter to students and reproduced below. Highlights… Read More
Program: Advocacy & Policy
I’m in prison. I may never get to see my family again due to coronavirus
There is a mood of unease gripping the inmates. The unspoken fear is many of us will die alone in our cells without access to proper medical treatment On Friday, 13 March, a site director from the Bard Prison Initiative told me and other inmates… Read More
Still Behind Bars: Education and the Meaning of Freedom – A Passover Haggadah Supplement
Dear Friends, In 2014, BPI created a Haggadah supplement in partnership with Rev. Vivian Nixon, Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts II, Bard President Leon Botstein, and author Anya Kamenetz. Over the years, we have been delighted by the response and, following many requests, are pleased… Read More
Faculty Opinion: Pandemics, Prisons, and Public Health
This reflection by Dr. Bob Fullilove, Senior Advisor to the Public Health Program, is part of the Community Voices op-ed series for the BPI Public Health Journal. Through the COVID-19 crisis, BPI alumni, staff, and faculty will be posting reflections about their work and… Read More
Appeal to Governor Cuomo
On March 20th, our executive director joined leaders of a dozen other criminal justice agencies in New York -- all members of the Governor's Reentry Council -- urging Governor Cuomo to use his power and preempt a COVID crisis within the state prison system.… Read More
Max Kenner | Coronavirus Is Coming To Prisons
Max Kenner, Executive Director of the Bard Prison Initiative, joins David to discuss what the BPI does, why college-in-prison programs are essential to reducing recidivism and how prisons are adapting and preparing for the coronavirus. The conversation begins with a discussion about the effectiveness of… Read More
Rehabilitation and Education In America’s Prisons
For most incarcerated citizens, prison puts life on hold. You might say that's as it should be. Prison—at least partly—is punishment. But increasingly, policymakers are thinking more seriously about what happens when people get out of prison—and what the best ways are to rehabilitate them, so… Read More
BETTER ANGELS PODCAST Max Kenner: how prison education gives hope
BPI's Executive Director Max Kenner sat down with Sarah Brown on the Better Angels Podcast, originally posted on Their World and reproduced below. “I think you’re exactly right that mass incarceration is a symptom, if not the most prominent system of structural racism in the… Read More
Letter to the Editor: Next Step for New York College-in-Prison Program That Turned My Life Around
BPI Alumna Stacy Burnett '20, a writer and current College & Community Fellowship (CCF) fellow, tells her story as a response to an article about the state of college-in-prison in New York in The Gotham Gazette. Read the full article below: To the Editor: Regarding "New York… Read More
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