Who among us is capable of academic excellence? A new PBS documentary series tells the story of one program that's offering a rigorous liberal arts education inside maximum security prisons with encouraging results. Few completed high school; most earned their GED in prison. Ken Burns is executive producer. google mountain view charge cash app; wect news bladen county; college behind bars where are they now; college behind bars where are they now. . 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. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR. Our guests are Lynn Novick, who directed the documentary, and Dyjuan Tatro and Sebastian Yoon, two graduates of the program. In one of our most power episodes ever, BPIs founder Max Kenner and recent graduate Sebastian Yoon join Adam this week to discuss howReadMore, One graduate, featured in a new PBS documentary, shares the ups and downs of earning a degree behind bars. 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. All these things are intersecting and overlapping. Episodes. This is the thing we know how to do, and we happen to do it here. college behind bars where are they now. I'm a son. And so I was a little bit intimidated by that. After returning home, BPI alumni become independent taxpaying citizens. College Behind Bars, an Emmy-nominated, four-part documentary about the transformative power of education. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. I have watched them leave prison and have to struggle in ways that I have not because I have had the privilege of a college education. He worked 11-hour shifts, so he was mostly at work. You know, you forgot your book; you can't just go back and get your book. 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. This is FRESH AIR. The Bard Prison Initiative enrolls over 300 incarcerated students in six New York State prisons. So it totally enthralled me and motivated me to go after this education with pure zeal. 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. By Jamil Smith DAVIES: Dyjuan Tatro, what was it like for you? And, you know, spending time in the classrooms - as Sarah Botstein, the producer, and I did - I kept thinking, I wish I could go back to college and have this experience because it is - the classes are small. This is FRESH AIR. Add College Behind Bars to your must watch list! Reimagining the place of higher education. Creating educational opportunities in prison nationwide. Dyjuan Tatro and Sebastian Yoon are graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative. 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. Max Kenner, when he started it, was an undergraduate at Bard and just saw this need and, you know, convinced the college that it would be something that they should try to do. You are a prisoner and you are a student," Giovanni Hernandez tells Brut. 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%. Parts 3 and 4 air Tuesday. One of the toughest parts of living in Sunnyside, Mr. Hall said, is finding a vacant laundry machine. I mean, I think there are a lot of powerful stories in these documentaries of these students. And the Bard Prison Initiative, which was - began in 1999. Vocational training is fine, but we should also be having an opportunity for higher education. That degree really means something when they leave this program with their degree from Bard. It was just a really, really moving moment to be celebrated on the main Bard campus in that way by all these amazing young people. They study math, as Dyjuan said, languages, history, literature, art, science, philosophy, economics, public policy, you know, public health. Turkish prisons do not have a specific policy regarding children, but in general, they are not allowed in prison. And there's - I'll just let the listeners know there's an emotional moment here where you start to speak of your family, and you have to stop and compose yourself. And I always remember, no, no, no. I'm going to ask each of you to give me your first impressions here. So just to have normal kind of conversation, people have to literally yell back and forth. Did you feel yourself changing as you moved through these courses? Mostly I stop at Queensbridge Park, but there are times when I ride the bike lane all the way to the end of Astoria. Mr. Hall is the first formerly incarcerated person to be hired full-time by the Ford Foundation, where he works as a program associate, developing strategy and analyzing data for grants to advance, gender, racial and ethnic justice. Let's get back to the interview FRESH AIR's Dave Davies recorded with Lynn Novick, director of the new PBS documentary "College Behind Bars," and Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro, two graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative. Creating educational opportunities in prison nationwide. We always have to be mindful of how those people like myself are returning back to their communities and back to their families. There are counts. DAVIES: There was a time when higher education in correctional facilities was pretty common. 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. 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. YOON: I never stopped being a student. So, you know, the - in the Greek, liberal arts education literally means education worthy of a free man. You know, Lynn Novick, I believe this project grew out of your own experience teaching a course, right? Adult learners are, you know, much more mature and have life experience. And before the 1994 Clinton crime bill, there were college programs in almost every correctional facility in America. They love this film. Otherwise, you're not doing them any favors. Once enrolled, BPI students engage with the college full-time, embarking on a course of study that is ambitious and matches the breadth and intensity of any undergraduate learning experience. I realized that all my experiences and my skills were related to prison work. 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? But I had no life experience to bring to that. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Teaching resources for Born Behind Bars is a documentary series that takes place in a maximum-security prison in Indiana. College Behind Bars is a production of Skiff Mountain Films, in association with Florentine Films and WETA-TV. We're in the business of education. And then this changed in the . This July we saw a major legislative victory in New York, spearheaded by BPI alumni. ). And I kind of froze in place and just looked around the room and just felt really, really inspired. 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 . In 2016, BPI was proud to join the first cohort of sites receiving experimental eligibility through Second Chance Pell. 80% are BIPOC. You know, I would go in and do all the work in a day or two, and the expectations were really, really low. As a result, the number of college-in-prison programs in New York fell from over 70 to 4. Now he wants to help kids avoid prison. DAVIES: You know, I want to talk to you, Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro, a bit about your lives. They contribute to their communities in all the ways one might expect of any college graduate. College Behind Bars is an intimate look at the lives and experiences of a dozen BPI students and their families that confronts . Sign up for the College Behind Bars newsletter to learn more about the film and events nationwide. 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. But while I was receiving that education, as I said, it was liberating. The recent PBS series, " College Behind Bars ," chronicles Mr. Hall's eventual parole and release in 2015. So let's just listen to this. TATRO: Sure. BPI alumni overwhelmingly go home to their communities and give back in ways that positively impact the lives of others. She spent four years in prisons taping material for the documentary, which is her solo directorial debut. And then upon entering prison, I felt the same otherness that I felt while I was in middle and high school. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. After serving 22 years in prison, he is making up for lost time, with a job at the Ford Foundation, good coffee and a long soak in the tub. And that's - Pell grants are supposed to be based on economic need. And I went to prison for 12 years at the age of 19, 20 for assault. DAVIES: Tell us a little bit about the work you're doing. You may change your parameters at any time using the link found at the bottom of every email. And when I actually started my courses, I was shocked by how rigorous and how demanding the program was. And, you know, they're like, strip. 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 Max Kenner, who is the founder and executive director of the program, is welcoming the new students. At BPI, we are committed to investing in people, reinventing institutions and making genuine education more accessible. So it has a ripple effect even beyond people applying to just - you know, the facilities where there is higher education have less incidence of violence and disruption and things like that. Part 1: 'No One Ever Taught Me Any of That.'. College Behind Bars (two hours) begins Monday at 9 p.m. with Parts 1 and 2 on WETA and MPT. And I started to respond with violence because I thought I had no other option. As public funding of college-in-prison returns to the field the question shifts from Will there be college-in-prison? I just committed a bad act. TATRO: No. You're looking ahead. That is to say, the college has no interest in the nature of your criminal conviction, the length of your sentence, how much time you have left in prison. DAVIES: You know, this is tough material in these classes. You know, what's striking about this program is that - I think a lot of people who think about ways that prisons can help incarcerated people get jobs when they get out of prison is to provide vocational training - you know, teach people to be welders or auto mechanics or, you know, stuff like that. 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. 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, pretty much. And fewer than 4% have gone back to prison. I finished my degree in the spring of 2018. Both are featured in the PBS documentary series College Behind Bars. 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. Incarcerated men and women in New York State are admitted to the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), one of the most rigorous college programs in America. Neither had been in a maximum security . It radiates and ramifies throughout my entire family structure, you know? And then they're like, strip. And that had been true for over a generation, and it was well understood and accepted that education was an essential part of criminal justice and of rehabilitation. The Bard Prison Initiative enrolls over 300 incarcerated students in six New York State prisons. DAVIES: And your dad went through some really tough times, sent you to Korea when you were little 'cause he was trying to find a way to keep things together. 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