We're going to start coursework Monday morning. My mother left me and my siblings when I was 5, so my dad raised us three - my older brother and my sister - by himself. And he said - he says to me, you stood up. This movement took on renewed urgency following Congresss reinstatement of Pell Grant access to incarcerated students in 2020. After the 94 Crime Bill, state lawmakers followed the federal lead and rescinded state-level tuition assistance programs. The documentary prompts viewers to consider the importance of higher education in prison. Check out more details below: Good job. So the program is 20 years old, and it started small. That means that 50% to 60% of the 630,000 people who get out of prison every year are back in prison in three years. College Behind Bars is an intimate look at the lives and experiences of a dozen BPI students and their families that confronts and challenges conventional wisdom about the purpose of both education and incarceration. NOVICK: Yeah. And, you know, just being in a classroom setting where I was sitting down with people from different backgrounds, listening to their stories and their ideas and you start to appreciate that despite the differences that we have, there are so much more similarities among us. I had to understand the idea of hubris, and I had to understand the idea of tragedy, and I had to understand these concepts. Great to have all of you. By signing up for BPI emails, you are agreeing to receive news and updates from BPI. My family loves Bard College. One of the toughest parts of living in Sunnyside, Mr. Hall said, is finding a vacant laundry machine. . The PBSand Emmy-nominated documentary "College Behind Bars" seeks to showcase the students of BPI as well as the need for more prison college programs throughout the country. I don't see myself as a person. With so much at stake, BPI is doubling down on our commitments to national engagement in policy and practice including The BPI Summer Residency for emerging programs and practitioners. My colleagues are aware of different types of cuisine and restaurants and whenever we travel together for work or have a lunch together, theres this tendency to talk about food and wine. Read BPIs open letter here. DAVIES: Wow. The Bard Prison Initiative Debate Union prepares for a debate against the University of Vermont in 2014. The four-part series follows the journey of men and women incarcerated in. During the 2016 presidential campaign, they were hired by Republicans and then by Democrats and investigated connections between Trump and Russia. They've earned college degrees and are now employed. We will continue our conversation after a short break. So you can be in class midway, and if the bell rings because the count was off or if there's a security problem, then you have to go back to your cells. DAVIES: Wow, that's really remarkable. 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 doc is also a moving portrait of individuals determined to defy the odds and build a better future for themselves.. I was - I had to show them that I was smart enough to be part of this group. Our associate producer of digital media is Molly Seavey-Nesper. You know, I would go in and do all the work in a day or two, and the expectations were really, really low. YOON: Yeah. I wish you continued success. TATRO: Sure. And I'm wondering - I'm going to ask Sebastian. I can give them different types of advice. And what's incredible is that you can also serve as tutors, so you're constantly working with other students who are trying to obtain their associate's degrees or bachelor's. TATRO: Having a liberal arts education has made me a much deeper thinker. DAVIES: Yeah, this business of counts - I mean, Sebastian Yoon, do you want to explain this? And I wondered - I couldn't help but wonder when I went - when I submitted this application, would they see this and give me a chance for an interview had I not been able to write that I received a Bard bachelor's degree? The subjects and filmmakers reveal the inspiring story of how the power of education can change lives in College Behind Bars. And in the context of the '90s and the tough-on-crime rhetoric and the super predator kind of, you know, demonization of people who have been convicted of crimes, as part of the Clinton crime bill, there was an amendment to withdraw eligibility for Pell grants for people who were in prison. You got to go back to your - I guess to your cell - right? 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%. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. One of the things I used to do is kind of put my headphones on with classical music, and that's how I would get my reading and get my work done. Today, BPI enrolls over 300 incarcerated students full-time in programs that culminate in degrees from Bard College; it offers extensive support for its alumni in and around New York City; and, it has developed the BPI Summer Residency, an intensive, experiential, and hands-on series of workshops on the nuts and bolts of college-in-prison for new and emerging practitioners led by BPI staff and alumni. YOON: And it was a very interesting moment for me where I realized that the education that I was receiving in prison was the same education that I would receive had I gone to college out there. Do they have a place as opposed to, you know, this really rigorous academic program? And so yeah, that is a huge impediment to trying to learn. Are they right about that, Dyjuan? They study all the disciplines in the liberal arts. College Behind Bars remains - especially in the first episode - admirably focused on the practicalities of prison life and prison programmes. Dyjuan, what's it been like connecting with your family again? Sebastian Yoon, Dyjuan Tatro, congratulations on your degrees. In early 2020 BPI began working with lawmakers to change Merit Board eligibility rules so that all incarcerated students can be eligible for early release based on earning college credits. Its about two miles away. After graduation, there were like, 30, on each side of the shower room just waiting for you. Rodney, Sebastian and Giovannie embark on yearlong senior, The debate union faces Harvard. The recent PBS series, "College Behind Bars," chronicles Mr. Hall's eventual parole and release in 2015. College Behind Bars, an Emmy-nominated, four-part documentary about the transformative power of education. In August 2022, BPI joined colleagues across the field in issuing public comments in response to the Department of Educations proposed regulatory language. I mean, I think, you know, having taught in the program myself, you walk into class, and the students are there. college behind bars where are they now. Neither had been in a maximum security . 2023 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). I'm going to ask each of you to give me your first impressions here. After the federal Pell ban in 1994, New York implemented a ban on TAP eligibility in 1995. After returning home, BPI alumni become independent taxpaying citizens. They love this film. What kind of courses are taught? "We all have. And I just wonder if you could reflect a bit on how it might have changed you - Dyjuan. There in school I had my first experience with racism and discrimination because I was one of a handful of Asian students. It's two different systems, right? And today, there are 300 students in six facilities in New York state, mostly men, but there's one facility for women as well. And I think the answer is no. I'm not going to wear that. I was in a poor, disadvantaged community, and I ended up at a very young age in gangs. They have the bike path right on the corner that leads all the way to the East River. 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. BPIs newest initiative, the Bard Microcollege, expands yet further the scope and impact of this work, delivering high-quality liberal arts education to communities outside of prison through partnerships with community-based institutions. Fact: GROSS: Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro earned bachelor's degrees from the Bard Prison Initiative. And I think we should just start being really clear about the scale of the commitment, first of all, that we're making to you and, secondly, that we expect of you. College Behind Bars (two hours) begins Monday at 9 p.m. with Parts 1 and 2 on WETA and MPT. It's about a program in which professors of Bard College give college classes in six correctional institutions. Leath on "Born Behind Bars" Those interviewed in the video say Leath truly cared about the babies and their mothers in the nursery. You don't have the Internet. Incarcerated men and women in New York State are admitted to the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), one of the most rigorous co, Sebastian, Dyjuan and Tamara reflect on the difficult circumstances of their childhood, while the debate team prepares to, The debate union faces their rival across the river, West Point. The numbers that I remember from the documentary was that at - there were about 890 or so in the institution, 110 in the program, which is a pretty good number. The series College Behind Bars aired on PBS on November 25 and 26 and is now available for free streaming on PBS.org through the end of January. DAVIES: And that's Dyjuan Tatro and Sebastian Yoon from the PBS documentary "College Behind Bars," which premieres tonight on PBS. Its always with me, said Mr. Hall, 44, of prison. Dyjuan Tatro and Sebastian Yoon are graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative. Adult learners are, you know, much more mature and have life experience. And it was often a joke that I would show up at school and get all these awards, and they would say, but you were never here. He worked 11-hour shifts, so he was mostly at work. Most had circumstances early in their life, which were really, really tough, heartbreaking in many cases. TATRO: Oh, I think that couldn't be further from the truth. And you can learn grammar. The ONLY thing I could find was the recent murder of the pregnant (at the time of filming) CO Breann Leath who apparently . In four years of study they become accomplished scholars, shatter stereotypes, reckon with their pasts, and prepare to return to society. The subjects and filmmakers reveal how the power of education changes lives. While my clothes are in the washer, because its right across the street from me, Ill run back upstairs and start cleaning my apartment for the week. As you will see in the film, there's tremendous potential among incarcerated people. Men and women earn college degrees - and a chance at new beginnings - while incarcerated. In the beginning, you don't even know how to use a comma. The BPI student body mirrors that of the prison system at large: students come from communities with the fewest quality educational opportunities that are most impacted by crises of hyper-policing and mass incarceration. I'm a son. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're discussing the new four-part PBS documentary "College Behind Bars." You may change your parameters at any time using the link found at the bottom of every email. When I look at the scenes of the classroom in the documentary - it's a four-part documentary, and there are a lot of scenes - these classes are a lot more orderly and focused than I remember any of my college or high school classes being. Meet the cast of Behind Bars: Rookie Year on A&E. Get season by season character and cast bios and more only on A&E. Through the lived experiences of the students and their families, this is a groundbreaking story of incarceration, injustice, race in America, and the transformative power of education. And we're just a really tight cohort, and we see each other as family because we've been through the same struggles and we got the same education. Well, you know, for a number of the graduates - and this was true of Sebastian, not Dyjuan - there was this - there's this terrible paradox where, you know, the fact that you are completing your college degree and graduating doesn't mean that you are released from prison. I mean, you both entered prison as teenagers, right? The series follows the inmates as they give birth and raise their children behind bars. DAVIES: Sebastian Yoon, tell us what it was like getting started in these classes. 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. They worked with former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, whose dossier was leaked and published. Yoon and Tatro both entered prison as teenagers, and both earned bachelor's degrees in the Bard Prison Initiative. After a break, they'll talk about getting their degrees, leaving prison and rejoining their families and how they think a liberal arts education changed them. This is a scene where there's a group of brand-new students at the Eastern Correctional Facility, which is a maximum security facility in New York, just been admitted to the program after a competitive admissions process, and what we see is a not terribly large classroom and a group of 15 to 20 men in blue jumpsuits seated at typical classroom desks. 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