21st BPI Commencement | Eastern | June 3, 2023
June 2023: BPI’s 21st commencement ceremony with voting rights activist and commencement speaker Desmond Meade, whose work restored voting rights to over 1.4 million people with histories of convictions in Florida. 63 students earned degrees.
20th BPI Commencement | Eastern | June 11, 2022
Across May and June 2022, BPI celebrated six graduations — our first in-person since 2019 — and honored over 200 graduates; we cheered the wildly overdue change in New York’s law excluding incarcerated people from modest, need-based scholarships; and, we recognized the contributions of retiring congressman Bobby L. Rush, who received an honorary doctorate and delivered the commencement address.
BPI 20th Anniversary Commencement Retrospective
While COVID forced us to postpone two in-prison commencements this spring, we’re proud to share this film looking back at past graduations and honoring the 58 BPI & micrcocollege graduates of 2020.
18th BPI Commencement | Eastern | January 19, 2019
Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend: BPI confers its 500th diploma and an honorary degree to civil rights leader William J. Barber II.
BPI Reentry | June 2018
A look into the variety of career and professional journeys of BPI alumni upon their returning home to the Greater New York City Area.
17th BPI Commencement | Woodbourne | June 9th, 2018
The Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Mary Bassett, is honored at BPI’s seventeenth commencement ceremony. BPI alumni and graduate of Yale Divinity School, George Chochos, presides over the Benediction.
16th BPI Commencement | Taconic | June 1, 2017
Highlights from BPI’s sixteenth commencement ceremony, Taconic Correctional Facility. Featuring Tabetha Ewing, Professor of History, Bard College; Rossana Rosado, New York Secretary of State; Rev. Vivian Nixon, Executive Director, College & Community Fellowship.
15th BPI Commencement | Eastern | January 21, 2017
The Dean of Yale College, historian Jonathan Holloway, visits Eastern Correctional Facility as BPI confers its 400th diploma.
14th BPI Commencement | Woodbourne | June 11, 2016
As college-in-prison makes more progress than ever nationally, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries gives remarks at BPI’s graduation ceremony at Woodbourne Correctional Facility.
12th BPI Commencement | Eastern | January 24, 2015
Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, receives an honorary degree from Bard College at BPI’s 12th commencement ceremony.
11th BPI Commencement | Woodbourne | May 31, 2014
Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney is honored at BPI’s eleventh commencement ceremony. One student returns after release to graduate.
10th BPI Commencement | Eastern | January 26, 2013
At BPI’s tenth commencement ceremony, Reverend Dr. Calvin Butts III delivered the commencement address. Here are some highlights.
BPI Tenth Anniversary Film | April 2012
A glimpse inside BPI as students, alumni, and faculty reflect on its first decade.