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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.

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.

Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend: BPI confers its 500th diploma and an honorary degree to civil rights leader William J. Barber II.

A look into the variety of career and professional journeys of BPI alumni upon their returning home to the Greater New York City Area.

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.

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.

The Dean of Yale College, historian Jonathan Holloway, visits Eastern Correctional Facility as BPI confers its 400th diploma.

As college-in-prison makes more progress than ever nationally, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries gives remarks at BPI’s graduation ceremony at Woodbourne Correctional Facility.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, receives an honorary degree from Bard College at BPI’s 12th commencement ceremony.

Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney is honored at BPI’s eleventh commencement ceremony. One student returns after release to graduate.

At BPI’s tenth commencement ceremony, Reverend Dr. Calvin Butts III delivered the commencement address. Here are some highlights.

A glimpse inside BPI as students, alumni, and faculty reflect on its first decade.