college behind bars where are they now

And that had been true for over a generation, and it was well understood and accepted that education was an essential part of criminal justice and of rehabilitation. DAVIES: You know, I want to talk to you, Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro, a bit about your lives. By Jamil Smith I mean, Dyjuan, I think you had a brother who had been - a younger brother who'd struggled and had been incarcerated at some point. 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. They study math, as Dyjuan said, languages, history, literature, art, science, philosophy, economics, public policy, you know, public health. I finished my degree in the spring of 2018. And he said - he says to me, you stood up. Sebastian Yoon, how long after your graduation did you have to serve before you got - were released?

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 I walked out of prison on August 10 of 2017, and I was back in college on August 24 finishing my B.A. I was a lonely kid. Therefore, from what we can tell, she now lives a sober life in Crawfordsville, Indiana, alongside her partner and son Marshall Craig Roche who was born in the summer of 2019. WebCollege Behind Bars is the inspiring, emotional, deeply human story of men and women struggling to earn college degrees while in prison for serious crimes. to What will the field of college-in-prison look like? DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're discussing the new four-part PBS documentary "College Behind Bars."

Roberta Shorrock directs the show. But I had no life experience to bring to that. There's an extreme amount of noise in prisons. But one of the things that was also great - there are instances where the other prisoners would accommodate us, where they would say, you know, the Bard guys are working at this table; let's go over here and make noise, or, like, the Bard guys are in the room - in their rooms studying. You may change your parameters at any time using the link found at the bottom of every email. Celebrating 200+ degrees in six graduations back in person with Congressman Bobby Rush. This movement took on renewed urgency following Congresss reinstatement of Pell Grant access to incarcerated students in 2020. 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. However, I think that we also have to realize that we live in a country and we have an economy where the type of work that vocational training used to give you no longer exists. TATRO: Sure.

DAVIES: And that's from the documentary "College Behind Bars," directed by our guest Lynn Novick. Brandon Moore Brandon Moore was only 16 when he and three other teenagers attempted to rob a 21-year-old college student in Youngstown, Ohio. So the program is 20 years old, and it started small. Yoon and Tatro earned college degrees taking rigorous courses taught by Bard College faculty in a maximum-security prison. And they are first eligible for an associate degree, and then if they can that, they can apply to get a bachelor's degree.

Arionna Davis was in LaPorte for the second time when she was introduced to the viewers, only to be given a third stint shortly after filming concluded for violating parole. And so yeah, that is a huge impediment to trying to learn. Now he wants to help kids avoid prison. I mean, I think there are a lot of powerful stories in these documentaries of these students. Web2026.

Jule Hall was 17 when he went to prison for being an accessory to homicide. "I think what this film does is remind us that human beings are capable of changing over time. NOVICK: Yes, indeed. DAVIES: Sebastian Yoon, tell us what it was like getting started in these classes. This is not my identity. And they are ready, and they are prepared, and they've done all the reading, and they've read the footnotes, and they've read the ancillary reading, and they are - you know, you better know what you're doing. And, you know, we came to feel that it was important for them to - and they also felt it was important for them to explain themselves, how they see themselves, where they've been, where they are, through the lens of the education that they've been getting and their perspectives that have shifted over time. WebCollege 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. You know, you forgot your book; you can't just go back and get your book. During the 2016 presidential campaign, they were hired by Republicans and then by Democrats and investigated connections between Trump and Russia.

Creating educational opportunities in prison nationwide. And what this education does is it untaps (ph) that potential.

U.S. Both of you went into prison as teenagers and came out as young men. (SOUNDBITE OF ROBBEN FORD AND BILL EVANS' "PIXIES"). And so the film ends up and their stories end up, you know, raising some really important questions about violence and about harm and incarceration, and what is prison for, and what is the value of education? Could you talk just a little bit about the process? And you can learn grammar. Dyjuan Tatro and Sebastian Yoon are graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative.

I was in a poor, disadvantaged community, and I ended up at a very young age in gangs. "I had a fundamental shift in what I think about incarceration," she said. And then I came to crave it more and more. 4/22/2019

It was just a really, really moving moment to be celebrated on the main Bard campus in that way by all these amazing young people. And they thrust you right back into prison. With that said, were glad to report that it looks like Harley has stayed away from any unlawful activity since her discharge, making a home for herself in Greensburg to be near her family. WebAnd that had been true for over a generation, and it was well understood and accepted that education was an essential part of criminal justice and of rehabilitation. 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. More than 2 million Americans are incarcerated today, and many are looking for alternatives to prison and ways to help offenders rebuild their lives.

Webj bowers construction owner // college behind bars where are they now. What kind of courses are taught? 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.

Thats why she was released from LaPorte Correctional Facility for good in September 2018 after serving merely four months. I had to write that I swept and mopped floors. When he entered prison in 1998, the "get tough on crime" legislation had halted college programs. Read BPIs open letter here. I have several friends who are still incarcerated that I spent my summers outside of class tutoring, and they're now in the program. MAX KENNER: Welcome to Bard College.

Despite everything, though, Jesse not only managed to be let out of prison on time, but she later also applied and got accepted to the Ivy Tech Community College. It teaches you how smart you are. Sebastian Yoon, Dyjuan Tatro, congratulations on your degrees. college behind bars where are they now.

You know, I am originally from Albany, N.Y. TATRO: You know, I'm not taking it back to my cell and going to sleep with it. Get the latest news about BPI and our work. This is FRESH AIR. WebCollege Behind Bars, an Emmy-nominated, four-part documentary about the transformative power of education, which premiered nationwide on PBS, is now available on Amazon Prime and PBS LearningMedia. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. They spoke with FRESH AIR's Dave Davies. YOON: I never stopped being a student. Students accepted to the program take classes in prison taught by Bard College faculty, using the same materials and meeting the same standards as students on the college's main campus. However, the teen mothers decision to go out on an armed robbery spree with her baby daddy on December 8, 2017, is what eventually landed her in the state facility. (SOUNDBITE OF STEFON HARRIS AND BLACKOUT'S "DAT DERE"). They were doing advanced mathematics, math without numbers on the board. The faculty generally find this experience so energizing because of that exact thing - that they have to sort of - if they're teaching a course on the Bard campus and in BPI, they actually have to make the BPI version a bit harder, get more assignments and, you know, up the reading because the students are just so eager for the material and expect so much. BPIs newest initiative, the Bard Microcollege, expands yet further the scope and impact of this work, delivering high-quality liberal arts education to communities outside of prison through partnerships with community-based institutions. The students have a quite impressive breadth of curriculum. So just to have normal kind of conversation, people have to literally yell back and forth. 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 the paradox here is that I was someone getting that type of education while I was in prison, but the education itself is what liberated me. You don't have the Internet. What I prize is the education and the knowledge that I received in the process of obtaining that degree. And then they're like, strip. In four years of study they become accomplished scholars, shatter stereotypes, reckon with their pasts, and prepare to return to society. Bard Prison Initiative students at Eastern New York Correctional Facility in an advanced bachelor's degree seminar. DAVIES: You know, I'd like, Sebastian and Dyjuan, to hear a little bit about how - reconciling with your families. In simple words, the Indianapolis native has reconnected with her daughter, welcomed another baby girl into the world, and found a stable job at Aeropostale. So I know when I was in college and I was reading Greek tragedy or Shakespeare or, you know, classic texts, it was just an assignment to me. So within the prison context, you know, people know who the guys are in BPI, and they come to us for advice. Skiff Mountain Films 2019 | info@skiffmountainfilms.com Learn more about Pell restoration on our blog. For most prisoners, there is no access to a college program or a way to pay for tuition to take classes. But that means a lot that weren't - probably some applied and did not get in. 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. DAVIES: Dyjuan Tatro, what was your graduation experience like? It appears as if she has since preferred to keep a vast majority of her life away from the spotlight. So once that happened, almost all those programs vanished - went from about 800 programs to fewer than 10. BPI was founded in 1999, in the wake of the decimation of college-in-prison. GROSS: Lynn Novick speaking with Dave Davies. Good job. Recidivism rates skyrocketed for a variety of reasons, including this, and slowly, some privately funded programs started to come back in. 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. But as we got to know the students, we began to understand the circumstances of their lives, which, as you say, were complicated, sometimes tragic, often involved exposure to violence and other tragic experiences. The numbers that I remember from the documentary was that at - there were about 890 or so in the institution, 110 in the program, which is a pretty good number. WebCollege Behind Bars is the inspiring, emotional, deeply human story of men and women struggling to earn college degrees while in prison for serious crimes. But I needed that degree in order to get my first interview, and then I went to four more interviews after that where I was able to prove myself through speech.

Let's start with a clip from the documentary. Few completed high school; most earned their GED in prison. 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. "We reduce people to what they have done," Israil said.

And so, you know, this experience has not only been personally rewarding and amazing for me.

WebCOLLEGE 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). And I always remember, no, no, no. College Behind Bars, an Emmy-nominated, four-part documentary about the transformative power of education. I'm going to ask each of you to give me your first impressions here. (Speaking Korean) Thank you. - and wait until you get the all clear? It adds stability. Kind of how large are the classes?

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. And when I actually started my courses, I was shocked by how rigorous and how demanding the program was. DAVIES: And from the graduation ceremony of the Bard Prison Initiative. 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. It radiates and ramifies throughout my entire family structure, you know? In four years of study they become accomplished scholars, shatter stereotypes, reckon with their pasts, and prepare to return to society. We see him, don't we? TATRO: And so I got to walk across the stage on Bard's Annandale campus with the other 400 students in my year in 2018. Furthermore, she is presently working as a Cleaning Technician at Mpw Industrial Services to build a good and comfortable life for her small yet adorable brood, as seen above. I don't think I heard anybody use that as an excuse for committing crimes, though. Great to have all of you. So, of course, the fact that the producers of Girls Incarcerated couldnt follow up on her at the end made us even more curious about her whereabouts. Dyjuan, you want to share something? Lynn Novick, Sebastian Yoon and Dyjuan Tatro, welcome to FRESH AIR. Prison is not an easy place to get an education. Add College Behind Bars to your must watch list!

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.

The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) works to redefine the availability, affordability, and expectations typically associated with higher education in America. So when we start talking about what is best for people in prisons, Lynn said we should include them in that conversation. The film fills the screen with stories about human transformation as cameras follow a dozen incarcerated men and women as they try to earn college degrees through BPI.

In fact, in the three years she has been left to her own devices, it looks like she has only led an honest, positive life. However, the 17-year-old was still one of the most low-risk juveniles at the facility, especially owing to her hilarious, mature, hardworking, and bubbly personality when sober. 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. College Behind Bars first premiered Nov. 25, 2019 on PBS and has since then become popular among Netflix audiences. Incarcerated People Can Do More than Beat Harvard in a Debate. The fifth annual BPI Public Health Fellowship Symposium featured the 2021 Public Health Fellows virtual presentations of their projects captured in the video above and the conversations linked below.

By never looking back, it seems that the Goshen native has even managed to study at Ivy Tech Community College, with dreams of becoming a child advocate one day. My family took care of me for 12 years while I was in prison, and now I'm in a position in life where I can support and be there for them. They spoke with FRESH AIR's Dave Davies. They spoke with FRESH AIR's Dave Davies. WebCOLLEGE 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).

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