A group of inmates at a maximum security prison in New York has defeated Harvard College students in a debating contest, marking a remarkable milestone for a prison education initiative aimed at helping inmates prepare for life after incarceration.
Inmates at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility faced the Harvard debate team, recent national championship winners, on the topic of: “Public schools in the United States should have the ability to deny enrollment to undocumented students.”
The prisoners team strongly disagreed with the idea of denying education, but were forced to argue in its favour (as is often the case in such debates), CNN reports.
They faced a team of three Harvard undergraduates in a debate held at the prison last month, and when the judging panel announced their decision at the end of the one-hour debate the prisoners had won, with their fellow inmates cheering their victory.
The prisoners’ team consisted of three men convicted of violent crimes who have been enrolled in the Bard Prison Initiative, run by nearby Bard College.
Alex Hall, 31, serving a sentence for manslaughter, told The Wall Street Journal before the debate: “If we win, it’s going to make a lot of people question what goes on in here.
“We might not be as naturally rhetorically gifted, but we work really hard.”
The achievement was even more impressive as prisoners are not allowed internet access to research for the contest, and accessing materials through the prison library can be fraught with delays as prison staff approves requests.
All of the inmates on the debating team are enrolled in the Bard Prison Initiative – a programme which aims to offer prisoners an education and a better chance of having a more productive life and avoiding a return to prison once their sentence is finished.
The programme is largely funded by private donors – including Doris Buffett’s Sunshine Lady Foundation and the Ford Foundation - as Federal funding for college education was cancelled in the 1990s.
The U.S. prison population close to doubled between 1996 and 2013, to 1.6 million inmates, and many of those were repeat offenders. However studies have found that inmates who participate in educational course while in college have a significantly lower chance of ending up back in prison than those who didn’t.
“There is nothing proven to be less expensive and more effective than college,” said Max Kenner, executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative.
The Bard programme takes in roughly 300 students each year, and they have found that of their students less than 2% re-offend, compared with a nationwide average of 68% being arrested within three years of release, and more than half imprisoned again.
Harvard was not the first famous win the prison debaters took, having previously beaten a team from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, and a nationally ranked team from the University of Vermont. After those wins they had invited the Harvard team to compete.
The Harvard Club offered a gracious congratulations to the prisoners, posting on their Facebook page: "Three members of the HCDU had the privilege of competing against members of the Bard Prison Initiative's debate program.
"There are few teams we are prouder of having lost a debate to than the phenomenally intelligent and articulate team we faced this weekend, and we are incredibly thankful to Bard and the Eastern New York Correctional Facility for the work they do and for organizing this event."
