Alya and Gary Michelson Attend City Hall's College Behind Bars Event

“As we know, somewhere around sixty-six percent of all the people who leave prison are back within three years. And, what is the why? The first thing is a lack of education.” -Dr. Michelson

On October 17, 2019, policymakers, philanthropists, impact investors, educators, and students gathered at Los Angeles City Hall for a pre-screening of the first episode of College Behind Bars: No One Ever Taught Me Any of That. The four-part PBS documentary follows several individuals as they work to obtain their bachelor's degrees through the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) while incarcerated in New York State. 

“When I got into the BPI program in 2007, it was almost like a lifeline...and I remember holding onto it for dear life,” Sebastian Yoon, a BPI alumnus shared. Sebastian went on to say, “there are more than 2.1 million prisoners across the country, most of whom are feeling the same hopelessness that I had but [do] not have the opportunity that I had.” 

In the U.S., sixty-four percent of people in prison are eligible to enroll in college, yet only nine percent are able to complete post-secondary programs. We know that postsecondary education in prison increases employment rates upon release while simultaneously decreasing recidivism rates, yet educational programs in prison tend to be difficult to scale. As Dr. Michelson stated in his opening remarks, “Daunting and doable is still doable.”