BPI Debate Union Faces Harvard Team in a Rematch Featured in the Wall Street Journal

On Friday, May 5, the debate teams of the Bard Prison Initiative and Harvard University gathered at Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch, New York, for a rematch of a 2015 debate in which BPI students drew international attention for their victory. Friday’s debate was called for Harvard by a 2-1 vote, but the match was close, and came at a time when education in prison programs have garnered broader support and attention nationwide, writes Corinne Ramey for the Wall Street Journal. “Now that Harvard won,” BPI team member Leroy Taylor told Ramey, “There has to be a rematch.” In the 2021–22 academic year, more than 13,000 students enrolled in college programs in prisons across the United States, up from 6,000 in 2016–17, according to estimates from the Vera Institute of Justice, an independent nonprofit national research and policy organization. More than 325 full-time Bard college students enrolled across seven New York State prisons are enrolled through the Bard Prison Initiative, and around 20 of those students participate in the debate program.

Post Date: 05-09-2023