A college education transformed [formerly incarcerated people's] lives. But some critics fear low-quality programs will rush in. Every time Vivian D. Nixon has publicly testified about the power of a college education to transform the lives of those behind bars, she’s drawn attention to one… Read More
BPI Blog
Tag: Alumni
Alumni Resources: Announcing BPI’s January 2021 Transitional Workshop
The BPI Transitional Workshop is a 6-week, compensated program operating in New York City (with remote capability during COVID). It offers support, training, and guidance as you navigate the challenges of a successful transition home and explore new opportunities in continuing your education and… Read More
Alumni Opinion: The Fight Beyond the Wall
Alumnus Shawn Young '19 was invited to participate in BPI's Community Engagement in Public Health & Education Internship stipend program on March 13, 2020 - the day that COVID shut everything down. His original proposal to run a reentry support group through Citizen Action was… Read More
Alumni Opinion: Felony Disenfranchisement Suppresses the Votes of Black and Latinx Americans
BPI government affairs officer, Dyjuan Tatro '18, argues that felony disenfranchisement should be understood as a racist mechanism of voter suppression. This blog post was originally posted by the Vera Institute of Justice and is reproduced below. I was released from New York State prison,… Read More
Protected: Alumni Resources: Finding Work (updated Dec 2)
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Alumni Resources: Federal Stimulus Check (Time-Sensitive Update)
Earlier this year the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued federal stimulus checks to individuals and families across the country, but many individuals were unfortunately excluded due to their incarceration status. If you received a federal stimulus check earlier this year, this information does… Read More
Alumni Resources: Voting Rights For New Yorkers With Felony Convictions
Learn the facts from the myths and check your eligibility In New York, the general rule is that you can vote after incarceration for a felony conviction while you are on probation, or once you have completed parole. In these cases, your voting rights are… Read More
A Call to Action: Merit Board Eligibility
To the BPI community, Since early this year, BPI has been working with New York lawmakers to change Merit Board eligibility criteria so that incarcerated students with convictions classified as non-violent can be eligible for early release based on earning college credits. I am… Read More
Health and Safety Resources for the BPI Community (regularly updated)
This post first appeared March 16th, 2020 and has been continually updated since then. For nearly a decade, BPI has been committed to engaging public health as a rewarding area of academic study and a promising career field, ripe for the contributions our alumni are… Read More
Alumni Chronicles: Vanessa Fields ’17
As we close out the end of our academic and fiscal year, we are sharing short films of Bard Prison Initiative Public Health Fellows, each of whom have come to the fore as voices of experience and leadership in public health across New York… Read More