John & Catherine Debs, The Cousins Foundation, Inc., Abrams Foundation, Schwartz/Reisman Foundation, Ted Dintersmith & Elizabeth Hazard, McCloskey Family Charitable Trust, and Donna & Dick Strong. James Herriots adventures as a veterinarian in 1930s Yorkshire get a new TV adaptation. We can remove the first video in the list to add this one. Part 2: 'I'm Trying to Get Home to My Family, Too.'. And Max Kenner, who is the founder and executive director of the program, is welcoming the new students. Its always with me, said Mr. Hall, 44, of prison. College Behind Bars. 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. DAVIES: Sebastian Yoon, tell us what it was like getting started in these classes. I have to really compete with mostly older women to get my clothing washed. TATRO: Oh, I think that couldn't be further from the truth. YOON: Two more years after my bachelor's degree in 2017. Read the Interview in Mother Jones Post Date: 12-11-2019 And you can learn grammar. This is the thing we know how to do, and we happen to do it here. Well, you know, for a number of the graduates - and this was true of Sebastian, not Dyjuan - there was this - there's this terrible paradox where, you know, the fact that you are completing your college degree and graduating doesn't mean that you are released from prison. And I got there, and I took the entrance exam and sat in my cell and waited for the acceptance letter. And at the age of 10, my family - once my dad made enough money, we moved to Long Island. This is five times a day, right? I mean, I think there are a lot of powerful stories in these documentaries of these students. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COLLEGE BEHIND BARS"). And I said, that's what I'm going to do, and I was in a different facility at that time - easier said than done. You are Korean American, right? Part of our job is to provide grants and support to other organizations and individuals who are working towards social justice reform. Read BPIs open letter here. . And then this changed in the . Our guests today are Lynn Novick, who directed the documentary, and two graduates of the program, Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro. After a break, they'll talk about getting their degrees, leaving prison and rejoining their families and how they think a liberal arts education changed them. There's an extreme amount of noise in prisons. Parts One & Two. There are counts. 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. YOON: So I believe that, you know, the degree is just a piece of paper, and I think there's too much significance tied to the degree. And she said, well, welcome to college. Lynn Novick, Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro, welcome to FRESH AIR. We will continue our conversation after this short break. Leath on "Born Behind Bars" Those interviewed in the video say Leath truly cared about the babies and their mothers in the nursery. The recent PBS series, "College Behind Bars," chronicles Mr. Hall's eventual parole and release in 2015. Let's start with a clip from the documentary. I'm Terry Gross. Ill get up and just sit in silence in my apartment.. So that was, like, really, really kind of humbling to see that type of support from the general population. Lynn Novick's 'College Behind Bars,' four-hour PBS documentary about the Bard Prison Initiative and the impact of educational programs as part of prison reform, is provocative and inspiring. Adult learners are, you know, much more mature and have life experience. 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. 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. So when we start talking about what is best for people in prisons, Lynn said we should include them in that conversation. 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 want to play a clip here. Vocational training is fine, but we should also be having an opportunity for higher education. 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. 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. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. I finished my degree in the spring of 2018. College Behind Bars (two hours) begins Monday at 9 p.m. with Parts 1 and 2 on WETA and MPT. College Behind Bars, the four-part documentary about the transformative power of education, premiered nationwide on PBS in November 25, 2019. DAVIES: It's to literally count to ensure that every inmate is is accounted for. College Behind Bars is a production of Skiff Mountain Films, in association with Florentine Films and WETA-TV. Starbucks is a place where people dont notice each other; theyre more focused on their computer or their phone. Back in 2018, Netflix released its docuseries Girls Incarcerated: Young and Locked Up . Since its first cohort in 2001, BPI students have earned over 52,000 credits and more than 550 Bard College degrees. I remember telling my professor that, how can I complete an eight-page paper if I feel like I could complete it in only two? College Behind Bars, which airs on PBS Monday and Tuesday night, offers TV audiences a rare window into the U.S. correctional system. Since 2001, BPI has created groundbreaking opportunities for college within Americas prison systems. And then you say, oh, this is my reality. And I think it bred for me empathy, which is something that I didn't have a lot of when I was a teenager. Tried as an adult for his involvement in the fight, Mr. Hall was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Siena Poll Today Showed Huge, Bipartisan Majorities For Programs That Lower Barriers to Incarcerated New Yorkers Re-Entering Society 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. 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 never had really thought about going to college until, all of a sudden, there was this thing that I heard about in prison called the Bard Prison Initiative. All these things are intersecting and overlapping. 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. 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. College Behind Bars is directed and produced by Lynn Novick; produced by Sarah Botstein; edited by Tricia Reidy ACE; produced by Salimah El-Amin and Mariah Doran;original music by Jongnic Bontemps; cinematography by Buddy Squires ASC and Nadia Hallgren. And I'm back at BPI today as the Government Affairs Officer, expanding - helping to expand access to college and prison through public investments in the work that we do. People were invested in this. 2026. Confronted with the "inhuman monotony" of life behind bars, Mr. Hall became a serious student, ultimately gaining admission to the Bard Prison Initiative, a competitive, full-time degree program run by Bard College. I mean, both - from the documentary, it seems that both of you had supportive families. And so I was a little bit intimidated by that. How can we have justice without redemption? Your purchase supports PBS and helps make our programming possible. And I just want to - after the euphoria of graduation, I mean, you certainly - you know, you had this terrific asset, this college degree that a lot of ex-offenders don't. The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) works to redefine the availability, affordability, and expectations typically associated with higher education in America. Or sushi, for that matter. The majority were first arrested as minors. Bard Prison Initiative graduate Sebastian Yoon, featured in the new PBS documentary College Behind Bars, shares how BPI changed him and the Eastern Correctional Facility, where he was incarcerated until March. DAVIES: You know, I'd like, Sebastian and Dyjuan, to hear a little bit about how - reconciling with your families. 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. I think that realization came to me when I sat down and began writing my first cover letter and my first resume. Having myself attended college while incarcerated, I can attest to the importance of theReadMore, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 18, 2022 Tell me how the experience compared with what you expected. It gave me the ability to put names to systems and things that had impacted my life. Novick directed the four-part documentary "College Behind Bars," which airs tonight and tomorrow night on PBS stations. And one of the reasons that we had to focus so hard and have that - the discipline that we had in this program is so that we could focus on the work and get the work done in a place where there's a lot of stress, pressure and distractions. Just putting together the course was challenging, and working with the students over the course of the eight weeks that we taught was thrilling. That was not our experience at all. And before the 1994 Clinton crime bill, there were college programs in almost every correctional facility in America. Men and women earn college degrees - and a chance at new beginnings - while incarcerated. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Yoon and Tatro both entered prison as teenagers, and both earned bachelor's degrees in the Bard Prison Initiative. The doc is also a moving portrait of individuals determined to defy the odds and build a better future for themselves.. 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. 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. YOON: I would say that all my friends right now are my peers from the BPI program, and our network is really growing. In the beginning, you don't even know how to use a comma. You know, he likes to tell me, you know, many people, when they get pushed down to their hands and knees, the easiest thing for them to do is just lay down. 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. Skiff Mountain Films 2019 | info@skiffmountainfilms.com But in reality, out here, the degrees matter. The Bard Prison Initiative enrolls over 300 incarcerated students in six New York State prisons. And when I actually started my courses, I was shocked by how rigorous and how demanding the program was. "We all have. The series follows the inmates as they give birth and raise their children behind bars. I go to bed around 9 or 10. Tune in for an unparalleled look inside @BPIBard, one of the most rigorous & challenging #CollegeInPrison programs. And so it's a pioneering program, not innovative in the sense that there had been higher education in prison before but unusual in the sense that very few institutions were doing this at that time. Creating educational opportunities in prison nationwide. After graduation, there were like, 30, on each side of the shower room just waiting for you. And that totally allowed me to reimagine myself. But that means a lot that weren't - probably some applied and did not get in. And it helped me understand my place in the world and activated me as a civically minded person. 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. Factory jobs are disappearing in this country year after year. When that door closes, you're at Bard College. CAST OF CHARACTERS Im ashamed to say this, but I people-watch. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. They spoke with FRESH AIR's Dave Davies. I wish you continued success. Everyone that we got to know well took full responsibility for what happened and explained the context in which it happened and how they are reckoning with it today. Virtually none return to prison. 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. The students have a quite impressive breadth of curriculum. Part 1: 'No One Ever Taught Me Any of That.'. But I'm wondering, was there a point at which it just seemed hard to adjust? Your education in that space can be interrupted in all types of different ways at any time of day. 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. 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. DAVIES: And that's from the documentary "College Behind Bars," directed by our guest Lynn Novick. Who among us is capable of academic excellence? When kids stopped bothering me, I guess I started feeling this false sense of empowerment. They spoke with FRESH AIR's Dave Davies. I was - I had to show them that I was smart enough to be part of this group. Sebastian Yoon, Dyjuan Tatro, congratulations on your degrees. We will continue our conversation after a short break. How Jule Hall, Graduate of the Bard Prison Initiative, Spends His Sundays, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/nyregion/jule-hall-college-behind-bars-pbs.html. You can see then Minister. And then they're like, strip. You know, I would go in and do all the work in a day or two, and the expectations were really, really low. COLLEGE BEHIND BARS, a four-part documentary film series, 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 (BPI). College Behind Bars was filmed over four years at two different prisons by Novick and producer Sarah Botstein, allowing the show to follow what happens to students in BPI: some transform,. DAVIES: Dyjuan Tatro, what was it like for you? So, you know, Bard has some re-entry services, mainly job placement and career development. WebCollege Behind Bars, which airs on PBS Monday and Tuesday night, offers TV audiences a rare window into the U.S. correctional system. We need to be preparing people in prison for the 21st century, and I think there's no better way to do that than giving them a liberal arts education. Im trying to act younger than my age, so I sometimes listen to trap music. College Behind Bars is perhaps one of the best documentaries that Ive seen about criminal justice in the past 5 years. When I look at the scenes of the classroom in the documentary - it's a four-part documentary, and there are a lot of scenes - these classes are a lot more orderly and focused than I remember any of my college or high school classes being. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. 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. And what the film shows and the work at BPI shows is that that cannot be more untrue. Do they have a place as opposed to, you know, this really rigorous academic program? My father was in Vietnam, came home drug-addicted and has never really recovered from that. . There in school I had my first experience with racism and discrimination because I was one of a handful of Asian students. And one day, we went to a karaoke bar, and a fight erupted, and somebody ended up losing his life. Incarcerated men and women are admitted to the Bard Prison Initiative, a rigorous college program, where some make great strides while others . This is FRESH AIR. I don't think I heard anybody use that as an excuse for committing crimes, though. DAVIES: Yeah, it was interesting. You know, it's interesting. DAVIES: Yeah. During the 2016 presidential campaign, they were hired by Republicans and then by Democrats and investigated connections between Trump and Russia. You know, you forgot your book; you can't just go back and get your book. 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. They have the bike path right on the corner that leads all the way to the East River. They love the Bard Prison Initiative. YOON: Oh. I'm not going to wear that. So people in the corrections department recognize that as well. Because I was shocked by how rigorous and how demanding the program, is welcoming the students. Davies: it 's to literally count to ensure that every inmate is is for... 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