Liberating Minds by Ellen Condliffe Lagemann

Author:Ellen Condliffe Lagemann
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620971239
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2016-12-23T05:00:00+00:00

7

What Works?

Insights from the Bard Prison Initiative

When I first became involved in the Bard Prison Initiative, I was startled to hear the students I was teaching talk about coming to class as “coming to Bard.” We were sitting in a room within a maximum-security prison with windows that could not be opened more than an inch or two. Yet they were speaking as though they had been transported to Bard’s main campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Now after many years of teaching and advising in the prisons, I understand what they meant. Those of us who are involved in Bard’s prison program regard each of the six sites where courses are offered as another one of Bard’s many, far-flung campuses. When students step over the threshold into a Bard class or study room, they know Bard norms will apply. They are regarded as students, and their status as prisoners is irrelevant. Though students sometimes choose to tell a faculty member why they are in prison, faculty members never ask them what their crimes were. They are treated in exactly the same manner as all other Bard College students and held to exactly the same standards. Students are expected to act respectfully to one another as well as to faculty members, but vigorous debate and disagreement are encouraged, including with faculty members. In speaking of “coming to Bard” students are referring to the fact that “in Bard” academic values govern and they may think, speak, and act as free men and women.

Of course, prison rules and regulations are still in force. The program is possible only because the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has sanctioned it and reviews all educational materials before they are taken into a prison. Faculty must be approved by the department, as well as photographed and fingerprinted. In addition, they must undergo standard departmental training, consisting of watching and discussing a video about how to avoid problems. They must also abide by dress regulations—no blue jeans and nothing that is the same green as the uniforms—and they go through a metal detector upon entering the facilities and are not permitted to bring cell phones inside.

Founded in 1999 (though it did not become a degree-granting program until 2001), the Bard Prison Initiative enrolls three hundred full-time students, spread across six New York State correctional facilities, five for men, three of which are maximum security and two of which are medium security; and one for women, a medium-security facility. Admission to the college is highly selective, with all students entering on a track toward an associate’s degree. Those who do well at the associate’s degree level may apply for admission to the bachelor’s degree track, which enrolls many fewer students. All students pursuing the bachelor’s degree are housed at the Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch, New York, which is the hub of the college, with the most students and classes, as well as the richest array of lectures, concerts, and other extracurricular offerings, and which

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