And I went to prison for 12 years at the age of 19, 20 for assault. You got this education, and you're trying to help people now. As a result, the number of college-in-prison programs in New York. Because when people ask that question or that question's being asked, that's usually the implicit assumption, that they are only capable of this level of education. Parts One & Two. But I needed that degree in order to get my first interview, and then I went to four more interviews after that where I was able to prove myself through speech. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. So within the prison context, you know, people know who the guys are in BPI, and they come to us for advice. Virtually none return to prison. Born Behind Bars is a documentary series that takes place in a maximum-security prison in Indiana. And, you know, what we hope is that through these - their very courageous and generous sharing of their stories, we can all have a different kind of conversation than we have had about who is in prison, why people are incarcerated, what our criminal justice system does and doesn't do to - it's supposed to be helping people to prepare to come back to society and become productive citizens. You know, he likes to tell me, you know, many people, when they get pushed down to their hands and knees, the easiest thing for them to do is just lay down. And I just want to - after the euphoria of graduation, I mean, you certainly - you know, you had this terrific asset, this college degree that a lot of ex-offenders don't. In August 2022, BPI joined colleagues across the field in issuing public comments in response to the Department of Educations proposed regulatory language. So just to have normal kind of conversation, people have to literally yell back and forth. Anyone can read what you share. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. And there was a tremendous void. YOON: Well, classes usually happen in between counts. DAVIES: And have you both stayed in touch with folks you knew from the program and helped - people you helped? By Tyler Kendall January 17, 2020 / 2:19 PM / CBS News Dameon Stackhouse was several years into his. Max is the founder and executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative, and Rodney received his bachelor's degree from Bard College in 2017 through the Bard Prison Initiative. And so, you know, this experience has not only been personally rewarding and amazing for me. And one of the reasons that we had to focus so hard and have that - the discipline that we had in this program is so that we could focus on the work and get the work done in a place where there's a lot of stress, pressure and distractions. You're looking ahead. And I got there, and I took the entrance exam and sat in my cell and waited for the acceptance letter. And within, you know, a month, they're doing college-level reading and writing. DAVIES: Yeah, this business of counts - I mean, Sebastian Yoon, do you want to explain this? So once that happened, almost all those programs vanished - went from about 800 programs to fewer than 10. That kind of thing. But I'm wondering, was there a point at which it just seemed hard to adjust? I'm done. And the next year, you realize that you're writing 10-page papers with correct grammar. You can learn the math skills you need pretty quickly if you're motivated. We need to be preparing people in prison for the 21st century, and I think there's no better way to do that than giving them a liberal arts education. James Wiley committed a heinous crime at 15 years of age. When we come home now, we often help each other get jobs. The vast majority of people in this country that are incarcerated are going to be returning to society. TATRO: You know, one of the great things about, you know, Bard is that it's recognized that it's not enough just to, you know, kind of issue a degree and give someone an education, send them back out into society. You may change your parameters at any time using the link found at the bottom of every email. And I think - I was lonely. TURN ON THE TAP NY PRAISES GOVERNOR HOCHUL FOR INCLUDING TUITION ASSISTANCE FOR INCARCERATED NEW YORKERS IN BUDGET Since its first cohort in 2001, BPI students have earned over 52,000 credits and more than 550 Bard College degrees. They both earned college degrees and are now employed. Our stories, our lives, they are influenced by a great number of people. Your support helps make this possible. I mean, Dyjuan, I think you had a brother who had been - a younger brother who'd struggled and had been incarcerated at some point. Part 2: 'I'm Trying to Get Home to My Family, Too.'. Adjust the colors to reduce glare and give your eyes a break. DYJUAN TATRO: You know, one of the most salient moments for me in my time in BPI is my first time walking in to the Bard library at Eastern Correctional Facility. There's an extreme amount of noise in prisons. I wish you continued success. Who among us is capable of academic excellence? YOON: So I believe that, you know, the degree is just a piece of paper, and I think there's too much significance tied to the degree. I thought it was incredibly well done in all ways. However, I think that we also have to realize that we live in a country and we have an economy where the type of work that vocational training used to give you no longer exists. College Behind Bars, a four-part documentary film series directed by award-winning filmmaker Lynn Novick, produced by Sarah Botstein, and executive produced by Ken Burns, tells the story of a small group of incarcerated men and women struggling to earn college degrees and turn their lives around in one of the most rigorous and effective prison education programs in the United States the Bard Prison Initiative. Its always with me, said Mr. Hall, 44, of prison. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. In 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act made people in prison ineligible for Pell Grants. And, you know, one of the just greatest moments there is that when the BPI students were getting up to walk the stage, the president of the college, Leon Botstein, said - you know, he said these are some of our most distinguished and greatest students, and the whole student body stood and gave us a resounding round of applause. We will continue our conversation after this short break. TATRO: By the way, you know, the recent research shows that for every dollar a state invests in college and prison, it saves $4 to $5 in re-incarceration costs. How can we have justice without redemption? Men and women in prison for serious crimes try to earn college degrees in this groundbreaking story of incarceration, injustice, race in America, and the transformative power of education. With Botstein onboard as a producer, Novick set out to direct what became the four-part PBS docuseries "College Behind Bars." Executive produced by Burns, the documentary examines mass. DAVIES: Lynn Novick, give us the basics of the program. It's about a program in which professors of Bard College give college classes in six correctional institutions. For me, my family has been YOON: My dad, appa, I'm sorry for having dishonored our family, for putting you through such an undeserved and unbearable pain. I realized that all my experiences and my skills were related to prison work. All these things are intersecting and overlapping. So people in the corrections department recognize that as well. Hold on. I have several friends who are still incarcerated that I spent my summers outside of class tutoring, and they're now in the program. YOON: I would say that all my friends right now are my peers from the BPI program, and our network is really growing. And before the 1994 Clinton crime bill, there were college programs in almost every correctional facility in America. They have the bike path right on the corner that leads all the way to the East River. John & Catherine Debs, The Cousins Foundation, Inc., Abrams Foundation, Schwartz/Reisman Foundation, Ted Dintersmith & Elizabeth Hazard, McCloskey Family Charitable Trust, and Donna & Dick Strong. YOON: Two more years after my bachelor's degree in 2017. Yoon and Tatro both entered prison as teenagers, and both earned bachelor's degrees in the Bard Prison Initiative. There are bells. And it has had a profound impact on my personality and just the way that I move through the world today. All rights reserved. DAVIES: You know, it's interesting, Lynn Novick. Part 1: 'No One Ever Taught Me Any of That.'. Fact: TATRO: Oh, I think that couldn't be further from the truth. I worked as a cook. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. TATRO: Having a liberal arts education has made me a much deeper thinker. So I know when I was in college and I was reading Greek tragedy or Shakespeare or, you know, classic texts, it was just an assignment to me. Theres Filipino food, theres Indian cuisine, theres Turkish cuisine, theres Asian food, theres Greek restaurants, theres a diversity. Directed by Lynn Novick and produced by Sarah Botstein, College Behind Bars profiles the Bard Prison Initiative, a Bard College program that extends its curriculum and has awarded nearly. Tried as an adult for his involvement in the fight, Mr. Hall was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. And they are ready, and they are prepared, and they've done all the reading, and they've read the footnotes, and they've read the ancillary reading, and they are - you know, you better know what you're doing. The recent PBS series, "College Behind Bars," chronicles Mr. Hall's eventual parole and release in 2015. Leath on "Born Behind Bars" Those interviewed in the video say Leath truly cared about the babies and their mothers in the nursery. Just putting together the course was challenging, and working with the students over the course of the eight weeks that we taught was thrilling. The Bard Prison Initiative enrolls over 300 incarcerated students in six New York State prisons. And I'm back at BPI today as the Government Affairs Officer, expanding - helping to expand access to college and prison through public investments in the work that we do. It radiates and ramifies throughout my entire family structure, you know? And, you know, we came to feel that it was important for them to - and they also felt it was important for them to explain themselves, how they see themselves, where they've been, where they are, through the lens of the education that they've been getting and their perspectives that have shifted over time. DAVIES: Yeah. And what the film shows and the work at BPI shows is that that cannot be more untrue. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. When incarcerated students from the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) Debate Union beat a team from Harvard, their victory made headlines around the world. It adds stability. And today, there are 300 students in six facilities in New York state, mostly men, but there's one facility for women as well. You may change your parameters at any time using the link found at the bottom of every email. According to records, James murdered his stepmother and three stepbrothers in cold blood. Everyone that we got to know well took full responsibility for what happened and explained the context in which it happened and how they are reckoning with it today. You know, I'm a brother. Im trying to act younger than my age, so I sometimes listen to trap music. Become a BPI supporter today and join a passionate community that believes in the power of education. : r/loveafterlockup. Our associate producer of digital media is Molly Seavey-Nesper. For streaming, visit pbs.org . I'm an uncle. And what this education does is it untaps (ph) that potential. Watch the full film and explore classroom-ready resources and activities. And that's not to say that it's not challenging, but that is to point to the fact that, if we support people transitioning back in society in the right way, they'd be capable of almost anything, you know? College Behind Bars is the inspiring, emotional, and deeply human story of men and women struggling to earn college degrees while in prison for serious crimes. Now, I still havent taken to wine. NOVICK: You know, Sarah and I, when we got into the project, we were focusing on the transformational aspect of it, power of education, and what did it mean to get this education while in prison? By signing up for BPI emails, you are agreeing to receive news and updates from BPI. A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE Once I put something in my stomach, I bike ride. This is FRESH AIR. In 2016, BPI was proud to join the first cohort of sites receiving experimental eligibility through Second Chance Pell. For more information about ways to support the Bard Prison Initiative, please visit our Support page or contact bpidevelopment@bard.edu. But the Allens still have mixed feelings about free degrees for inmates. Few people know the joy of a free Sunday like Jule Hall. I recently binged born behind bars on A&E and was looking for any kind of update on these mamas/babies. And so it's a pioneering program, not innovative in the sense that there had been higher education in prison before but unusual in the sense that very few institutions were doing this at that time. Skiff Mountain Films 2019 | info@skiffmountainfilms.com And then this changed in the '90s when we had the crime bill, right? YOON: For me, a liberal arts education cultivated in me conceptual and intellectual openness that invited me to consider worlds outside of my world from different times, thought and space. Learn more about this important amendment to the Merit Board rules, and its disproportionate impact on incarcerated women, on our blog. Did you feel yourself changing as you moved through these courses? One of the Bard professors said, you know, I don't have all these multimedia tools that you do in a big institution, but when you're in a class where everybody's done the reading, you don't need them as much. MAX KENNER: Welcome to Bard College. My father was in Vietnam, came home drug-addicted and has never really recovered from that. Funding for College Behind Bars is provided by Bank of America; PBS; Ford Foundation / JustFilms; National Endowment for the Humanities; Meg & Tomas Bergstrand; Regina K. Scully; The Lise , Find standards-aligned teaching resources for. In this era of mass incarceration, America is the world's largest jailer, with more than 2 million men and women behind bars; 630,000 are released annually, and nearly 50 percent end up back in . As public funding of college-in-prison returns to the field the question shifts from Will there be college-in-prison? Sebastian Yoon, tell us a little about yourself. Find standards-aligned teaching resources for 2026. It's always a seminar style. NOVICK: And I think - just to put the button or the final note is that the recidivism rates for the general population are between 50% and 60%. YOON: Oh. Incarcerated men and women are admitted to the Bard Prison Initiative, a rigorous college program, where some make great strides while others . And he said - he says to me, you stood up. So I grew up in Flushing, Queens. And one of the things that I saw as I watched the four episodes - and this reminded me of - I taught middle school and high school many, many years ago. 2023 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). But one of the things that was also great - there are instances where the other prisoners would accommodate us, where they would say, you know, the Bard guys are working at this table; let's go over here and make noise, or, like, the Bard guys are in the room - in their rooms studying. Good job. The type of things that are available to people in prison currently are somewhat outdated. Bad Boys bakery was a social enterprise set up in HM Prison Brixton, in the UK. We always have to be mindful of how those people like myself are returning back to their communities and back to their families. WebCollege Behind Bars, which airs on PBS Monday and Tuesday night, offers TV audiences a rare window into the U.S. correctional system. I had to write that I swept and mopped floors. DAVIES: Yeah. Sebastian Yoon, how long after your graduation did you have to serve before you got - were released? I don't think I heard anybody use that as an excuse for committing crimes, though. The majority were first arrested as minors. Even after you graduate, as long as you are in a prison in which Bard Prison Initiative operates, you're allowed to take courses. google mountain view charge cash app; wect news bladen county; college behind bars where are they now; college behind bars where are they now. Could you talk just a little bit about the process? Sebastian Yoon, your father was in the audience, right? . Dyjuan, you want to share something? (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COLLEGE BEHIND BARS"). 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