Schedule Check here for last year’s schedule as a close schedule for the one that is to come for the 2023 year. Getting Here For directions and area information, please refer to the Bard College Visitors page, here. The nearest train station is in Rhinecliff. Visit Amtrak… Read More
BPI Blog
Category: Communications
Black History Month Alumni Voices: The Sentimental Student
For BPI, every month is a month to study and celebrate Black History. As Bard College students, BPI students become scholars in their own right, not just absorbing course material but producing vital contributions to the literature. This February we asked BPI alumni what… Read More
Looking Back: JSTOR’s origins in prison
Recently ITHAKA S+R has made a major push to expand access to JSTOR inside prisons not just for incarcerated college students but to increase access to academic journals for all incarcerated people. This development comes more than a decade after BPI pioneered the idea… Read More
This Week and the Work Ahead
Wednesday morning we woke to tears of joy. In Georgia, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Church — the leader of Martin Luther King Jr.’s congregation — had been elected to the United States Senate. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock will bring the moral voice of the… Read More
On the win, at last
Dear Friend, Last night the President, at last, signed the omnibus spending and COVID relief bill into law. The insidious provision of the ’94 Crime Bill — that revoked modest student aid from incarcerated people and eviscerated college-in-prison instantly — has been reversed. Since the ‘94… Read More
BPI’s Work Continues Despite COVID-19
In March, BPI shifted our in-person work in the prisons to a distance model and in June students successfully completed the spring semester of more than 85 courses across six prisons. Although we were unable to hold commencement ceremonies in June, every student who… Read More
Remembering David Kaiser
After a prolonged battle with glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive brain cancer, we lost our friend David Kaiser last week. Only fifty years old, David leaves behind his wife, two daughters and a challenge to all of us. At BPI, we are proud that David counted… Read More
A Note to Alumni
Dear BPI alumni community, The ongoing killing of African-Americans by police — sworn to serve and protect — could not have been expected to continue so long without dramatic response. Three months into the COVID disaster, the policing crisis has forced itself to the fore yet… Read More
A Message to BPI Students
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