Dyjuan, you want to share something? Hold on. Our guests are Lynn Novick, who directed the documentary, and Dyjuan Tatro and Sebastian Yoon, two graduates of the program. And as I move forward in life and as I work to be a part of this social justice reform movement, I feel very passionate about it and excited that we are going to make progress. And it has had a profound impact on my personality and just the way that I move through the world today. They appear in the PBS documentary "College Behind Bars," directed by Lynn Novick. Faculty are going to be evaluating what you do as a student, exclusively. She spent four years in prisons taping material for the documentary, which is her solo directorial debut. I'm just interested in your perspective on this because I'm just - I imagine that, in a maximum security facility, there are a lot of folks who just didn't have kind of the educational kind of foundation to do college work the way you did, or maybe I'm wrong about that. 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? Now that Im thinking about it: more often than not, Im recognizing that the Twin Towers is not part of that skyline anymore. 56 views, 2 likes, 3 loves, 4 comments, 0 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from New&Living Way Gospel Temple: Sunday service This is a full-time and long-term and total commitment. They were doing advanced mathematics, math without numbers on the board. So it's just - it's really an open question. 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. DAVIES: Wow, that's really remarkable. No, I'm done. It raises questions we urgently need to address: What is prison for? In 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act made people in prison ineligible for Pell Grants. Watch the full film and explore classroom-ready resources and activities. "College Behind Bars" airs tonight and tomorrow night on PBS stations and will be available for streaming. 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. As they begin their studies at Eastern and Taconic Correctional facilities, they discover that they will be held to the same high standards as Bard College students on the main campus in Annandale-on-Hudson. And she said, well, welcome to college. GLOBAL DINNER SCENE I eat out on Sunday another thing Im privileged to do because of my job. Our stories, our lives, they are influenced by a great number of people. DAVIES: You know, some might think that prison inmates would have an easier time focusing on all this rigorous schoolwork because they're literally, you know, captive in the institution and are not distracted by parties or dating or football games like, you know, students on a traditional campus. 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. Born Behind Bars is a documentary series that takes place in a maximum-security prison in Indiana. Get the latest news about BPI and our work. Dyjuan Tatro and Sebastian Yoon are graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative. Since its first cohort in 2001, BPI students have earned over 52,000 credits and more than 550 Bard College degrees. DAVIES: Wow. Your education in that space can be interrupted in all types of different ways at any time of day. Josie Duffy Rice and co-host Derecka Purnell are joined by Dyjuan Tatro '18 andReadMore, The Bard Prison Initiative is a revolutionary program that provides a rigorous college education to men and women in prison. You are Korean American, right? Novick directed the four-part documentary "College Behind Bars," which airs tonight and tomorrow night on PBS stations. Creating educational opportunities in prison nationwide. And when we leave this room tonight, there is now something that can be taken away from you that's completely different than when you walked in. Thank you so much for speaking with us. 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. And you can learn grammar. SERIOUS READING I dont watch TV. DAVIES: Yeah, this business of counts - I mean, Sebastian Yoon, do you want to explain this? Congratulations. The recent PBS series, "College Behind Bars," chronicles Mr. Hall's eventual parole and release in 2015. 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. But I thought what just happened in the auditorium was also reality. By signing up for BPI emails, you are agreeing to receive news and updates from BPI. TATRO: So I actually graduated with my BA after I was released from prison. I'm Terry Gross. 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. There are bells. And I was bullied a lot. I have two brothers - one older, one younger. And I started to respond with violence because I thought I had no other option. In spring 2021 the NYS legislature passed the bill, and it was signed into law in July 2021. 4/22/2019 Both of you went into prison as teenagers and came out as young men. SAVOR I usually order a venti Pike, not too strong. This July we saw a major legislative victory in New York, spearheaded by BPI alumni. Episodes. Just putting together the course was challenging, and working with the students over the course of the eight weeks that we taught was thrilling. So I walked out of prison on August 10 of 2017, and I was back in college on August 24 finishing my B.A. U.S. I mean, it's a wide range of liberal arts curriculums. And they understand that research shows inmates who earn masters degrees behind bars have a 0% recidivism rate. Fact: 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. But that means a lot that weren't - probably some applied and did not get in. We see him, don't we? And then you say, oh, this is my reality. They love the Bard Prison Initiative. I mean, both - from the documentary, it seems that both of you had supportive families. 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. They both earned college degrees and are now employed. And you see people on this kind of, like, exponential learning curve from places where they, you know, might not seem at first glance that they're ready for "college work," quote, unquote. So there are a lot of things that impede your education in that space. He worked 11-hour shifts, so he was mostly at work. So, you know, the - in the Greek, liberal arts education literally means education worthy of a free man. YOON: I never stopped being a student. Even after you graduate, as long as you are in a prison in which Bard Prison Initiative operates, you're allowed to take courses. Tell me how the experience compared with what you expected. NOVICK: Yeah. Others that have to do, you know, kind of routine prison jobs instead of being in class - was there jealousy or resentment? DAVIES: Lynn Novick, give us the basics of the program. 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. Adjust the colors to reduce glare and give your eyes a break. DAVIES: You know, it's interesting, Lynn Novick. And so yeah, that is a huge impediment to trying to learn. (SOUNDBITE OF STEFON HARRIS AND BLACKOUT'S "DAT DERE"). 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. YOON: Sometimes, it takes 40 minutes. So we really take the opportunity that we had seriously and try to give back in real, tangible ways to the wider population. What was that time like for you? 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. 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. And I kind of froze in place and just looked around the room and just felt really, really inspired. 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 so, you know, this experience has not only been personally rewarding and amazing for me. I always thought that my logic and my feelings trumped others - no pun intended. 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. TATRO: They are like, congratulations. And he said - he says to me, you stood up. I guess you still treasure that moment, don't you? We can remove the first video in the list to add this one. After the federal Pell ban in 1994, New York implemented a ban on TAP eligibility in 1995. . So I grew up in Flushing, Queens. You know, Lynn Novick, I believe this project grew out of your own experience teaching a course, right? As public funding of college-in-prison returns to the field the question shifts from Will there be college-in-prison? How College in Prison Turns Around Lives and Saves Taxpayers Money, Knowledge & Redemption, A Conversation with Lynn Novick and Jule Hall, Incarcerated People Can Do More than Beat Harvard in a Debate. The ONLY thing I could find was the recent murder of the pregnant (at the time of filming) CO Breann Leath who apparently . I may watch Netflix, but I generally just read. Gordon Ramsay, in 2012, featured the enterprise as part of the show Gordon Behind Bars. I thought it was incredibly well done in all ways. DAVIES: Right. After the federal Pell ban in 1994, New York implemented a ban on TAP eligibility in 1995. - with, you know, caps and gowns and photos and parents in the audience. And I am the most proud father in the world. 2026. 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. 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