Last month, a group of inmates from the Eastern New York Correctional Facility went up against the Harvard College Debating Union in a debate. In an unexpected twist, the team of inmates won. These inmates are a part of the Bard Prison Initiative, a program that offers a full time college education to inmates in both minimum and maximum security prisons in the state of New York. The program has been running for about 15 years, beginning with only a few inmates and growing in number over time. It now enrolls about 300 incarcerated men and women, providing them with over 60 courses from which to choose.
The victory over the Harvard team brought a brief media spotlight to the program. Its incredible success raises questions about the correctional system in the United States. Obviously, most inmates across the country are not receiving such an opportunity. But the success of the Initiative suggests the implementation of more educational programs in correctional facilities nationwide might be worth the time and money. According to the initiative’s website, less than 2 percent of inmates who have gone through the program ever returned to prison — a fact that received little attention in media coverage of the victory over Harvard. That’s a staggering difference from the national recidivism rate. In one study, the National Institute of Justice found that over 76 percent of released prisoners were rearrested within five years of their release. In a country with one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, it certainly seems worthwhile to pursue a program that gave way to such drastically lower recidivism rates.
Of course, some might wonder if it is worth it or right to fund programs to educate prisoners when many non-incarcerated people in the United States cannot afford to get a college education already. But programs like the Bard Prison Initiative say they might actually save the United States money in the long run. According to the initiative’s website, the United States spends over $200 billion on the criminal justice system each year, averaging almost $30,000 per prisoner. If, as the statistics above suggest, programs like the Bard Prison Initiative could lower recidivism rates, the United States would have far fewer inmates to pay for, which means fewer taxpayer dollars going toward the criminal justice system, leaving more funding for education.
Others might argue inmates do not deserve to get a college education while serving time, since prison is meant to be a punishment. The Initiative addresses this on its website: “Punishment is one important goal of the penal system. Equally important is to provide people a realistic opportunity to assume the responsibility of returning to general society as better parents, neighbors and citizens.” Like it or not, over 750,000 prisoners are released back into society each year. If we make no effort to educate them or motivate change, we’re likely to see the same people committing the same crimes and ending up back in the same prisons until they are released again. Even for those who believe that the criminal justice system should only be about punishment, not rehabilitation, is in the interest of everyone’s safety to stop that cycle.
Though the Bard Prison Initiative only serves New York inmates, the program has slowly been spreading nationally via the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison, which works with colleges in four states. Notably, while no program of this kind exists in Virginia, the University does play a small part in educating inmates. Students at the University can enroll in a course called Books Behind Bars, in which they study Russian literature in order to discuss it with inmates in a nearby juvenile correctional facility. It provides an educational experience for both the University students and the inmates.
“Inmates Beat Harvard Debate Team” was a popular headline for about a week (though few headlines made any mention of the Bard Prison Initiative). It got big media buzz for its shock value, and many people enjoyed poking fun at the Harvard team for losing to a group of prisoners. But we shouldn’t let this story fade so quickly. It is proof there are inmates in U.S. prisons who are eager to get a college education and proof rehabilitative programs can work. Many inmates in the United States are in prison for nonviolent offenses, often drug-related. Such crimes deserve punishment, of course, but they do not negate those people’s right to get an education. While some might see it as a deserved punishment to keep education out of the hands of the 2.2 million people currently in U.S. prisons or jails, educating and providing opportunities to convicted criminals can help prevent future crime. We need to put more of these programs in place. It will result in a safer and more financially sound country.
Nora Walls is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at n.walls@cavalerdaily.com.
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