Emerson College launched the Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI) and joined the Consortium in 2017 with an initial cohort of twenty students at Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Concord who began coursework in the fall of 2017. With assistance from BPI, EPI is expanding course offerings… Read More
BPI Blog
Tag: College Behind Bars
‘Undoing a mistake’: Inside the push to bring college education back to prison
This article, reproduced below, first appeared in USA Today. 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… Read More
College Behind Bars Screens at the Apollo Theater
ON NOVEMBER 12, we brought together the filmmakers of College Behind Bars, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, with BPI’s community of alumni, families, staff, faculty, and supporters for a special screening of College Behind Bars at the legendary Apollo Theater. Hosted by Malcolm Jenkins, … Read More
College Behind Bars on the Today Show
Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Dyjuan Tatro talk about the PBS documentary series College Behind Bars on the Today Show. Read More
Documentary to Showcase Education in Prison
The Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference Friday in Washington hosted a panel discussion and preview of a new PBS documentary series that follows incarcerated people who are pursuing college degrees.
The four-part series, “College Behind Bars,” was executive produced by Ken Burns and directed by Lynn Novick. It will air Nov. 25 and 26.
It follows a dozen incarcerated men and women over four years as they participate in the Bard Prison Initiative, considered one of the most rigorous prison education programs in the country.
Burns moderated a conversation following the preview among Congressman Bobby L. Rush; Novick; Max Kenner, executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative; DeAnna Hoskins, president of advocacy group JustLeadershipUSA; and Wesley Caines, an alum of the initiative and chief of staff at the Bronx Defenders.
The conversation ranged from how the film was made, to current criminal justice reform efforts like the REAL Act, to broader issues like prison privatization and forgiveness.
“As a society, if we’re going to choose to remove certain people and place them in cages, we really need to ask ourselves how do we want them to exit those cages?” Caines said.