KHH1

Katia Hetter-Profile-Image

By Katia Hetter, CNN


(CNN)—In a debate between Harvard College students and those from any other college, some might guess that the Harvard students would win. And if the other side was a group of inmates at a maximum-security prison? Maybe even more so.

That would be a mistake.

Inmates from the Eastern New York Correctional Facility defeated the prestigious Harvard debate team in mid-September as part of the Bard Prison Initiative, a program run by Bard College to provide college education to qualifying prisoners, according to the Wall Street Journal.

If you knew the prison debate club's record, you might have voted for the inmates. They've defeated a nationally ranked team from the University of Vermont and the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. (They lost a rematch against West Point, and it's become something of a rivalry.)

The prison club had invited the Harvard College Debating Union to participate.


Inmates had to defend a point of view with which they fiercely disagreed, a common practice in debate competition: "Resolved: Public schools in the United States should have the ability to deny enrollment to undocumented students."

After the debate, Carlos Polanco told the Wall Street Journal that he would never want to keep a child from attending school but that he was grateful for his chance to attend Bard College in prison. "We have been graced with opportunity," said Polanco, 31, who is in prison for manslaughter. "They make us believe in ourselves."

The Harvard club seemed to take the loss gracefully.

"Three members of the HCDU had the privilege of competing against members of the Bard Prison Initiative's debate program," the group posted on its Facebook page. "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."
Inmates face any number of challenges preparing for debate, including a lack of access to the Internet and a requirement for prison administration approval of necessary written materials, which can delay access to information.

But they have perspective that college students on the outside may not have. They know their Bard education is an opportunity most inmates do not have, and they know it can be life-saving.

The Bard Prison Initiative, which has 300 students enrolled across New York state, reports that less than 2% of its formerly imprisoned students return to prison. By comparison, nearly 68 out of every 100 prisoners across the country are rearrested within three years of release, with more than half returning to prison.

mwdegutis Loc: Illinois

Harvard...the one of the bastions of liberal education. Like you said...prison inmates beat them -- liberals -- in a debate. Go figure.

Oh i'll figure alright..there are no great conservative institutions of higher learning anywhere in the US unless it is based on religious evangelical subjective crap. Compare institutions of higher learning in red states compared to blue and it is no contest....from K-12 on through post-graduate schools.....Harvard, Stanford, USC, Prairie View A&M, Howard...I would say Rice University where I am from is the only thing Ivy-League in a conservative state.......period.......

KHH1

and people make mistakes in life but that does not necessarily mean they lack the aptitude....as an educator...I teach students to become self-learners and show them that they do not have to be know it alls...but be able to research and locate resources where they can learn a subject as well as someone working in the field for many years if they dedicate themselves....this is a new day and age...the information age and that of the knowledge worker...a new paradigm for learning and personal skill attainment.......

moldyoldy

It is great for these guys to know that they can compete in the real world and succeed.

She Wolf Loc: Currently Georgia

We all make mistakes. I think the most important thing my professors did for me was instill in me a love of learning. I have attempted to instill that love in the children of this family.

I am glad to know there are programs which attempt to help inmates rejoin society. I only hope there are companies willing to take a chance on these men and women when they are released. Thirty years ago I took a chance on a woman just released from a federal institution and she took a chance on a woman in a male dominated field. We're both old ladies now and she has worked her way up in my company. She made one mistake, payed for that mistake, and is one of my most trusted friends to this day.

You do have a Christian spirit.... :thumbup:

KHH1

I agree....can let them know they may be able to get out and turn their lives around if society loses attaching a stigma to them as ex-cons......

moldyoldy

They are working on that finally. Especially the minor drug offenses. Most of our politicians are just as guilty many inmates.

KHH1

Yep...it would have to happen under Obama's Presidency...imagine trying to petition Bush and Ashcroft in this regard........... :roll:

KHH1

I did not modify it so go take your meds....I posted my reply in between his post inside of the outer [quote]....I apologized and took credit for my mistake....it is not like I said "so the phuck what get over it"......man you are on your man-period for real today..........

jelun

How about this?
Stop posting in Leaning Left, then you won't have to worry about it.

KHH1

you got the modify part which was not my intent...do you not accept the apology? Just say you don't and I'll quit trying to offer it......