Sarah Towers

Bard Prison Initiative

The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) works to redefine the availability, affordability, and expectations typically associated with higher education in the United States. Since 2001, BPI has created groundbreaking opportunities for college within the United States' prison systems. These programs transform the negative impacts of criminal punishment and create radical inroads of access and opportunity to higher learning. Today, BPI enrolls over 300 incarcerated students full-time in programs that culminate in degrees from Bard College; it offers extensive support for its alumni in and around New York City; and, it has developed the BPI Summer Residency, an intensive, experiential, and hands-on series of workshops on the nuts and bolts of college-in-prison for new and emerging practitioners led by BPI staff and alumni. The Residency leads to an ongoing community of practice that builds on over a decade of cultivating a nationwide network of leading universities and colleges in the field, through BPI's Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison. BPI's newest initiative, the Bard Microcollege, expands yet further the scope and impact of this work, delivering high-quality liberal arts education to communities outside of prison through partnerships with community-based institutions.