Pretty much everyone loves an underdog story. Especially when the underdog comes out on top. I believe that three men, who are incarcerated for violent crimes, would fit the description of “underdog.” So when these three men, serving their time at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility in the Catskills, beat a team of Harvard undergraduates in a debate, it was nothing short of inspirational.
While the debate team from Harvard no doubt had a slew of resources at their disposal to prepare, the three inmates did not. According to the Wall Street Journal:
“Preparing has it challenges. Inmates can’t use the Internet for research. The prison administration must approve requests for books and articles, which can take weeks.”
Even with this handicap, the inmates prepared to argue for a position they didn’t even agree with. The argument was: ‘Public schools in the United States should have the ability to deny enrollment to undocumented students.’
On that subject, the report mentions that:
“Carlos Polanco, a 31-year-old from Queens in prison for manslaughter, said after the debate that he would never want to bar a child from school and he felt forever grateful he could pursue a Bard diploma. We have been graced with opportunity,” he said. “They make us believe in ourselves.”
Now the Bard diploma that Mr. Polanco is speaking of is made possible by the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI). While the BPI began with humble beginnings in 1999, by 2013, Bard had granted nearly 300 degrees and enrolled more than 700 students. According to the BPI website:
“The Bard Initiative (BPI) creates the opportunity for incarcerated men and women to earn a Bard College degree while serving their sentences. The academic standards and workload are rigorous, based on an unusual mix of attention to developmental skills and ambitious college study. The rate of post-release employment among the program’s participants is high and recidivism is stunningly low. By challenging incarcerated men and women with a liberal education, BPI works to redefine the relationship between educational opportunity and criminal justice.”
With prisons becoming privatized and profit driven, these kind of success stories are amazing. Not only do they help the community, but they also help taxpayers who pay the bill on each inmate per year. Especially when non-violent crimes (such as unpaid tickets) can get you thrown in jail nowadays.
Lastly, as for the debate, Opposing Views reports:
“The win at Harvard is not the team’s first success. Last year they beat a team from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and later won against a nationally ranked team from the University of Vermont. The BPI team did lose a rematch against West Point in April.”
Beating Harvard and West Point at anything could be no easy task. With the disadvantages in preparation abilities, these wins show the success of programs like BPI. As for the mindset of a Harvard team member after the debate, 20-year-old junior Anais Carell said:
“They caught us off guard.”
