'College Behind Bars' documentary shown at Hofstra
The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) visited Hofstra to show and discuss their documentary series “College Behind Bars” on Wednesday, Mar. 4. BPI is a program sponsored by Bard College that grants people in prison the opportunity to achieve higher education. The academic program currently operates throughout six prisons in the New York state, with over 350 incarcerated students taking full-time classes.
The panel had two BPI representatives, Julia Lourie and Dyjuan Tatro. Tatro was a student inmate until he graduated in 2018 with a Bard College bachelor's degree in math and was featured in the documentary.
The idea of the documentary, which is four episodes in total, came about with a story from 2012 when Tatro met the director and producers, Lynn Novick and Ken Burns. Novick and Burns visited the prison to give a lecture to a class and show the film “Prohibition.”
“[Novick and Burns] walked out of the prison that day, and that was the first time either of them had been to a prison,” Tatro said. “And [they] said to themselves, ‘Someone should really make a film about this, it was amazing.’”
The students are earning the same amount of credits, taught by the same professors, and will graduate with the same degree as they would if on the Bard College campus. With this initiative, it gives these students a chance to leave prison and become functioning members of their society.
“The overarching feeling that I had was appreciation. It takes a tremendous amount of effort being on this side of education,” said S.M. Rodriguez, professor of criminology and a panelist for the discussion. “It is a testament to an incredible effort to really do something that may reduce the harm of being incarcerated.”
Several members of the audience shared personal stories of their struggles during and after incarceration and expressed great appreciation for what BPI is trying to do. “I never realized the lack of education in prisons and how useful it can be for so many inmates,” said Santino Rosso, a freshman criminology major.”This opened my eyes to this issue and I want better opportunities for these people.”
While the message of the film was well-received within the audience, one viewer pointed out that the episode of the documentary only featured a few women. “I applaud that this is great for men, but there are so many things that women don’t get that the men get,” said Carrie, a former prison inmate from Huntington. “People need to be educated because people are human beings.”
If it wasn't for BPI, he [Miles’ boss] wouldn’t be where he is today,” said Savannah Miles, a junior philosophy major who currently works for a BPI alumnus. “I know how transformative this program was for him.”
The Bard Prison Initiative allows students to recognize that they are still a part of society. For example, the students competed against the Harvard debate team and won.
“Incarcerated individuals in this society tend to be [depicted as] depressing, demoralizing and stigmatizing,” said Tatro. “This is a film about the complete opposite; this is about the vast amount of potential that we have incarcerated in this penitentiary and how we do this to cultivate and mine that potential.”
