A team of New York inmates won a debate against their opponents from Harvard in Napanoch, New York on September 19. The story went viral and aroused many surprised reactions. Many questions of how this group of criminals, all who have been convicted for violent crimes and contained in a high-security prison, could beat the current national champions in college debate.
“I’m stunned because of the stereotype that I probably have about inmates,” Newtown High School Mathematics teacher Janet Filmer said.
Three inmates from the Eastern New York Correctional Facility faced off against three Harvard students to argue whether or not U.S. public schools have the right to deny undocumented students enrollment. The prison team actually fought for a positon they did not personally agree with, but pulled off a victory by saying that denying access would prompt wealthier schools and nonprofit organizations to help them rather than just cramming them into “dropout factories” that did not have their best interest at heart. According to the panel of judges, the Harvard students lost because they failed to provide a rebuttal to parts of this argument.
“They caught us off guard,” Harvard debater Anais Carell said in a recent Wall Street Journal article.
The inmates received an education through the Bard Prison Initiative, a program designed to provide prisoners with an authentic undergraduate experience, including faculty straight from Bard College in Red Hook, New York. The organization serves over 2,300 students across six New York prisons. They are passionate about the movement for better education for everyone all across the country.
“The most important thing that our students' success symbolizes is how much better we can do in education in the US for all people. Our program is successful because we operate on a genuinely human level,” Bard Prison Initiative Founder Max Kenner told The Huffington Post.
The program has shown positive results ever since it was founded in 2001. The inmates who are chosen through an essay and interview application process receive liberal arts degrees upon graduating, which make it easier to find work once they are released from jail. Less than 2 percent of their 300 plus alumni have been arrested again within three years of leaving prison, a substantial success rate compared to 40% for the rest of New York, proving that education has the potential to reduce the number of arrests and the rate of crime.
“Education is an important part of growth and development and feeling they have a life of meaning, to find purpose,” Newtown High School guidance counselor Bret Nichols said.
Bard Prison Initiative has played a role in reducing the stigma surrounding prison inmates and battling the rising rates of incarceration in America over the years. This debate in particular has diminished many negative opinions.
“I’m surprised based on the fact that there are a lot of stereotypes about prisoners being dumb or not as smart as a regular person,” NHS senior Hannah Logan said.
The students go to great lengths to be accepted into the program and are grateful for their opportunities. They have reported positive impacts on their self-esteem and personal well-being.
“We have been graced with opportunity. They make us believe in ourselves,” Bard Prison Initiative student Carlos Polanco said in the Wall Street Journal.