1. And so, you know, I think we always need to consider that we're not talking about people in prison getting a degree in isolation, you know? 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. 27 2023 . I'm a son. After the 94 Crime Bill, state lawmakers followed the federal lead and rescinded state-level tuition assistance programs. We will hear Sebastian Yoon first and then we'll hear Dyjuan Tatro. Since 2001, BPI has created groundbreaking opportunities for college within Americas prison systems. After the federal Pell ban in 1994, New York implemented a ban on TAP eligibility in 1995. rush medical college leadership; college behind bars where are they now. DAVIES: There was a time when higher education in correctional facilities was pretty common. We can remove the first video in the list to add this one. But I usually put on jazz or R&B. It gave me the ability to put names to systems and things that had impacted my life. The documentary, "College Behind Bars," airs tonight and tomorrow night on PBS stations and will also be available for streaming. So let's just listen to this. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. Creating educational opportunities in prison nationwide. Ive got to say, this is the worst part of Sunnyside: its very competitive. Our associate producer of digital media is Molly Seavey-Nesper. Since its first cohort in 2001, BPI students have earned over 52,000 credits and more than 550 Bard College degrees. I just wanted acknowledgement and this feeling of power and security. And one day, we went to a karaoke bar, and a fight erupted, and somebody ended up losing his life. And what this education does is it untaps (ph) that potential. At BPI, we are committed to investing in people, reinventing institutions and making genuine education more accessible. The ONLY thing I could find was the recent murder of the pregnant (at the time of filming) CO Breann Leath who apparently . They appear in the PBS documentary "College Behind Bars," directed by Lynn Novick. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're discussing the new four-part PBS documentary "College Behind Bars." DAVIES: You know, it's interesting, Lynn Novick. 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. At BPI, we are committed to investing in people, reinventing institutions and making genuine education more accessible. To learn more about the restoration of TAP, read Jessica Neptunes the Director of National Engagement blog post here & Executive Director, Max Kenners, letter to our supporters here. They both earned college degrees and are now employed. I'm a math major, went on after that to do some project management and data collection for a tech company and then started thinking about how I could get back in the world. Shot over four years in maximum and medium security prisons in New York State, the four-hour film takes viewers on a stark and intimate journey into one of the most pressing issues of our time our failure to provide meaningful rehabilitation for the over two million Americans living behind bars. GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. One of the toughest parts of living in Sunnyside, Mr. Hall said, is finding a vacant laundry machine. DAVIES: Sebastian Yoon, tell us what it was like getting started in these classes. YOON: Yeah. 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. college behind bars where are they now college behind bars where are they now. DAVIES: We're talking about the new PBS documentary "College Behind Bars" with Lynn Novick, the director, and with Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro, two formerly incarcerated graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative. And I remember walking in and seeing men like me in prison uniforms, except that they were speaking Mandarin. Could you talk just a little bit about the process? And then, you know, you're approaching this search area, and you're in this liminal place. Last week, the New York State budget included a major victory for educational equity, ending a 26-year-old ban on access to need-based Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) grants for incarcerated students. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. So people in the corrections department recognize that as well. BPI was founded in 1999, in the wake of the decimation of college-in-prison. And what were the circumstances that that landed you in this prison? You know, I am originally from Albany, N.Y. In 1993, Mr. Hall, then 17, was involved in a gunfight in Brooklyn, when a bullet fired toward him killed his neighbor instead. U.S. It's about a program in which professors of Bard College give college classes in six correctional institutions. This can't just be watching movies and talking about it; you have to have a very sophisticated, demanding syllabus and assessments and writing assignments, and the students have to perform at the level that we expect for Bard College. My father never saw me as a bad person. And there was a tremendous void. James Herriots adventures as a veterinarian in 1930s Yorkshire get a new TV adaptation. You can just see this intellectual blossoming. I realized that all my experiences and my skills were related to prison work. Read the Interview in Mother Jones Post Date: 12-11-2019 WebCollege Behind Bars, which airs on PBS Monday and Tuesday night, offers TV audiences a rare window into the U.S. correctional system. I'm interested in your take on this - whether vocational programs should be there. College Behind Bars, a four-part documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker Lynn Novick takes you on an intimate journey of a dozen BPI students who are earning their college degrees while incarcerated. - and wait until you get the all clear? College Behind Bars, an Emmy-nominated, four-part documentary about the transformative power of education. TATRO: Sure. By Tyler Kendall January 17, 2020 / 2:19 PM / CBS News Dameon Stackhouse was several years into his. Are children allowed in Turkish prisons? TATRO: You know, I'm not taking it back to my cell and going to sleep with it. Who has access to educational opportunity? (SOUNDBITE OF STEFON HARRIS AND BLACKOUT'S "DAT DERE"). DAVIES: Dyjuan Tatro, what was your graduation experience like? Rodney, Sebastian and Giovannie embark on yearlong senior, The debate union faces Harvard. And so the film ends up and their stories end up, you know, raising some really important questions about violence and about harm and incarceration, and what is prison for, and what is the value of education? And this is not obviously the happiest part of your life, but - and you can say as much as you want about it, but I think the audience would be interested in knowing a bit about what your life was like coming up. Ill fix me a scrambled egg with a cinnamon raisin bagel in my toaster. The series follows the inmates as they give birth and raise their children behind bars. They become the support system that we need to rely on. WASHER WARS After that, I will follow that bike lane back home and do my laundry. 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. 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 know, I would go in and do all the work in a day or two, and the expectations were really, really low. How can we have justice without redemption? Adjust the colors to reduce glare and give your eyes a break. It teaches you how smart you are. So I started hanging out in the streets and, you know, I had a crew of boys that I always hung out with. CONTACT: Eric Koch | ericdkoch@gmail.com College Behind Bars is a production of Skiff Mountain Films and is directed by Lynn Novick. Theres Filipino food, theres Indian cuisine, theres Turkish cuisine, theres Asian food, theres Greek restaurants, theres a diversity. You've just tried to add this show to My List. Tune in for an unparalleled look inside @BPIBard, one of the most rigorous & challenging #CollegeInPrison programs. College Behind Bars is a production of Skiff Mountain Films, in association with Florentine Films and WETA-TV. What I prize is the education and the knowledge that I received in the process of obtaining that degree. TATRO: They are like, congratulations. They contribute to their communities in all the ways one might expect of any college graduate. DAVIES: And that's from the documentary "College Behind Bars," directed by our guest Lynn Novick. So the program is 20 years old, and it started small. YOON: There's this moment where you walk past his door, and all you see is curtains and officers waiting in, like, rows. So it's just - it's really an open question. College Behind Bars, the four-part documentary about the transformative power of education, premiered nationwide on PBS in November 25, 2019. Sebastian Yoon, Dyjuan Tatro, congratulations on your degrees. Helping prisoners go to college helps New York, Press Release: TURN ON THE TAP NY PRAISES GOVERNOR HOCHUL FOR INCLUDING TUITION ASSISTANCE FOR INCARCERATED NEW YORKERS IN BUDGET, WBAIs On the Count The Prison And Criminal Justice Report, BPI and College Behind Bars in The Appeal, College Behind Bars with Max Kenner and Sebastian Yoon. GROSS: Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, our guests will be Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, the former Wall Street Journal reporters who formed Fusion GPS, a private research company. A QUIET START I allow myself to sleep no later than 7:30, because on a weekday I get up around 5. By creating an account, you acknowledge that PBS may share your information with our member stations and our respective service providers, and that you have read and understand the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. And I think it bred for me empathy, which is something that I didn't have a lot of when I was a teenager. Let's keep the noise down. James Wiley committed a heinous crime at 15 years of age. And she said, well, welcome to college. You know, Lynn Novick, I believe this project grew out of your own experience teaching a course, right? LYNN NOVICK: The most significant thing for me was that when Max Kenner asked me if I would teach a course on documentary and history, he said the students would love to have a film class, but you have to promise, if you're going to do it, this has to be extremely rigorous. Rodney has been incarcerated for 17 years and is currently incarcerated at Fishkill. And today, there are 300 students in six facilities in New York state, mostly men, but there's one facility for women as well. This movement took on renewed urgency following Congresss reinstatement of Pell Grant access to incarcerated students in 2020. The four-part series follows the journey of men and women incarcerated in. This clip from Lynn Novicks College Behind Bars highlights the kind of academic work BPI students are doing as we defy expectations of who college is for and where it might lead. And then you address your father directly. DAVIES: Yeah, this business of counts - I mean, Sebastian Yoon, do you want to explain this? I was - I had to show them that I was smart enough to be part of this group. They have both been to prison. DAVIES: This school also has graduation ceremonies, and this is very moving. Sebastian Yoon, your father was in the audience, right? But while I was receiving that education, as I said, it was liberating. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're discussing the new four-part PBS documentary "College Behind Bars." DAVIES: Wow, that's really remarkable. That was not our experience at all. Creating educational opportunities in prison nationwide. Colleges or universities partnering in the Consortium. Use one of the services below to sign in to PBS: You've just tried to add this video to My List. So, to savor this rich, hot drink in my hand is so fabulous with cinnamon, not too much sugar. In four years of study they become accomplished scholars, shatter stereotypes, reckon with their pasts, and prepare to return to society. NOVICK: I'd just add that one of the really remarkable things about this program is that the admissions process is looking for people who have kind of intellectual curiosity and determination. What was that time like for you? I had to write that I swept and mopped floors. Novick is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker and longtime collaborator of Ken Burns. It raises questions we urgently need to address: What is prison for? MAX KENNER: Welcome to Bard College. So currently, I work as a program specialist with the Democracy Fund of Open Society Foundations, which is one of the biggest philanthropic organizations in the world. Good job. LAVENDER AND TRAP I will either boil water or run a bathtub because on Sundays, I love to take a hot bath, with lavender Epsom salts. The vast majority of people in this country that are incarcerated are going to be returning to society. Hes a regular at the local Starbucks, where he takes his coffee with cinnamon, not too much sugar.. When incarcerated students from the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) Debate Union beat a team from Harvard, their victory made headlines around the world. DAVIES: Wow, that's really remarkable. Justice in America Episode 29: Schools in Prison College Behind Bars. Get the latest news about BPI and our work. You have to go back to your cell. Lynn Novick, Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro, welcome to FRESH AIR. And Max Kenner, who is the founder and executive director of the program, is welcoming the new students. I'm Terry Gross. My family loves Bard College. Teaching resources for I'm Terry Gross. 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. You can learn the math skills you need pretty quickly if you're motivated. 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. Who among us is capable of academic excellence? And because the coffees so bad, we overcompensate with sugar or creamer. I'm done. 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. 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. Your support helps make this possible. And also with us are Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro, two formerly incarcerated graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative. Lacy Aaron Schmidt was just 14 when he murdered his ex-girlfriend, Alana Calahan, in Columbia County, Georgia. Celebrating 200+ degrees in six graduations back in person with Congressman Bobby Rush. But the problem is that there can - bells can ring off in prison at any time. And throughout this process, we're constantly talking with each other, helping each other out because on, like, the outside here, you have the Internet; our peers become the Internet. Sebastian Yoon, how long after your graduation did you have to serve before you got - were released? Now that Im thinking about it: more often than not, Im recognizing that the Twin Towers is not part of that skyline anymore. So I was charged at the age of 16 for manslaughter in the first degree, and I was sentenced to 15 years. 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. This is FRESH AIR. How can we have justice without redemption? DAVIES: Yeah. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. 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. This is not my identity. 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. This July we saw a major legislative victory in New York, spearheaded by BPI alumni. 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. Dyjuan Tatro and Sebastian Yoon are graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative. This is the thing we know how to do, and we happen to do it here. NOVICK: Yeah. By signing up for BPI emails, you are agreeing to receive news and updates from BPI. YOON: And part of that crime bill, Dave, was comprised - allocating $10 billion to build more prisons, and $10 billion at the time was enough to pay for higher education in prisons for more than 200 years. YOON: I never stopped being a student. Through the personal stories of the students and their families, the film reveals the transformative power of higher education and puts a human face on Americas criminal justice crisis. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This July we issued $650,000 in grants in the US and around the world. And so, you know, this experience has not only been personally rewarding and amazing for me. YOON: My family has been super supportive of me, as you'll see in the documentary, especially my father. Thats another thing I think is a spillover from prison: I saw the television as a space of conflict because people would argue over what to watch, so I stayed away from it. I recently binged born behind bars on A&E and was looking for any kind of update on these mamas/babies. 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. Copyright 2019 NPR. And I just wonder if you could reflect a bit on how it might have changed you - Dyjuan. 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. Theres not many bathtubs that can accommodate me, but I have a bathtub that partially can, as long as I put my legs up on the wall. And I will say this - when we started the project, sometimes people would say to us, oh, most people in prison will say that they're innocent and they didn't do the crime that they're there for. Most had circumstances early in their life, which were really, really tough, heartbreaking in many cases. Add College Behind Bars to your must watch list! There are counts. I have to read a lot for work, so whether its grants or theory-related and I mean, its great reading, but its not like Walter Mosley or some of those things I became fond of. Get the latest news about BPI and our work. That kind of thing. The subjects and filmmakers reveal the inspiring story of how the power of education can change lives in College Behind Bars. Of education and our work life, which were really, really tough, heartbreaking many. An Emmy-nominated, four-part documentary about the transformative power of education, premiered nationwide on in! 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