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College in Prison: Reading in an Age of Mass Incarceration
Over the years, American colleges and universities have made various efforts to provide prisoners with access to education. However, few of these outreach programs presume that incarcerated men and women can rise to the challenge of a truly rigorous college curriculum. The Bard Prison Initiative is different.
College in Prison chronicles how, since 2001, Bard College has provided hundreds of incarcerated men and women across the country access to a high-quality liberal arts education. Earning degrees in subjects ranging from Mandarin to advanced mathematics, graduates have, upon release, gone on to rewarding careers and elite graduate and professional programs. Yet this is more than just a story of exceptional individuals triumphing against the odds. It is a study in how the liberal arts can alter the landscape of some of our most important public institutions giving people from all walks of life a chance to enrich their minds and expand their opportunities.
Drawing on fifteen years of experience as a director of and teacher within the Bard Prison Initiative, Daniel Karpowitz tells the story of BPI’s development from a small pilot project to a nationwide network. At the same time, he recounts dramatic scenes from in and around college-in-prison classrooms pinpointing the contested meanings that emerge in moments of highly-charged reading, writing, and public speaking. Through examining the transformative encounter between two characteristically American institutions—the undergraduate college and the modern penitentiary— College in Prison makes a powerful case for why liberal arts education is still vital to the future of democracy in the United States.
College in Prison chronicles how, since 2001, Bard College has provided hundreds of incarcerated men and women across the country access to a high-quality liberal arts education. Earning degrees in subjects ranging from Mandarin to advanced mathematics, graduates have, upon release, gone on to rewarding careers and elite graduate and professional programs. Yet this is more than just a story of exceptional individuals triumphing against the odds. It is a study in how the liberal arts can alter the landscape of some of our most important public institutions giving people from all walks of life a chance to enrich their minds and expand their opportunities.
Drawing on fifteen years of experience as a director of and teacher within the Bard Prison Initiative, Daniel Karpowitz tells the story of BPI’s development from a small pilot project to a nationwide network. At the same time, he recounts dramatic scenes from in and around college-in-prison classrooms pinpointing the contested meanings that emerge in moments of highly-charged reading, writing, and public speaking. Through examining the transformative encounter between two characteristically American institutions—the undergraduate college and the modern penitentiary— College in Prison makes a powerful case for why liberal arts education is still vital to the future of democracy in the United States.
235 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 23, 2019
I read this for an upcoming workshop on Mass Incarceration and the Humanities and I found it useful, informative, and insightful. The author brings us inside the prison with him to gain a better, if filtered view, of the reality of his students. The book also underscores the importance of teaching the humanities in the goal of helping us lead richer, more inquisitive lives in pursuit of knowledge.
July 31, 2017
Why I read this book: my college is mentioned in this book (Holy Cross/Notre Dame) as one of the schools Karpowitz helped start a prison in college program. I met him briefly at the 2016 commencement ceremony for the graduates of Holy Cross by way of the prison. I'm going to teach in my school's prison in college program for the first time this coming fall and wanted to read College in Prison before I attended training.
This is truly a short book if you ignore the index and further reading sections (I don't have the book in front of me right now to be specific on what extras there are). It's about 175 pages of introduction and chapters. However, at times it felt like I was going in circles, with the same concepts repeated in a way that didn't feel introductory or conclusive, but like the book possibly needed a better timeline of information. I also wasn't convinced the focus was reading in prison. Much of it was about the liberal education in general, though Karpowitz does give examples of some of his students addressing a text they discuss in class. There were several points I pulled from the book, however, that I felt were important to remember, so I wrote them down:
"By an 'objective' educational emphasis I mean a tendency to call on students to focus their attention on the objects of study--the texts, controversies, concepts, and narratives put forward--prior to reflexivity, to a reflection on their own individual subject position and its particular relationship to the material at hand."
"Regardless of whether or not we have 'college in prison,' the two institutions share parallel roles in the reproduction of American privilege and inequality."
"The private liberal arts college enrolls only about 1 percent of American college students, but it retains its disproportionate role in the selection and formation of government elites."
"A comprehensive commitment is made to weave remedial or developmental work into the very fabric of the full, broad, liberal arts training."
"...too often academics who venture inside prison turn it into an opportunity to create something new, a chance to experiment with pedagogies or topics that are not found on the main campus." This is argued as a NEGATIVE; the college in prison experience should be as closely replicated to the home campus as possible.
"...the [Bard Prison] Initiative was not conceived as a special intervention on behalf of a particular 'population.'"
"Almost none of those admitted would have made it up to, let alone through, the college's 'normal' screening process."
"[Bard Prison Initiative] typically engages students convicted of serious and often violent crimes."
There were moments in the book when I felt like wasn't smart enough to engage with the author's arguments, but when I showed certain passages to my spouse and we discussed them, I realized there were places in the text that could have been worded more tightly to reduce confusion. For example, "Liberal education allows each student to analyze race and other pressures of structural inequality in the learning that unfolds." If the sentence starts with "liberal education," why must that idea be repeated with "in the learning that unfolds." Education implies learning, so make the sentence come full circle threw me for a loop. There are also a number of typos throughout, for instance, "...of creeating networks...." and "...the truly democratic ambitiom..." that frustrated me. What's even more exasperating is someone like me who wants more work and would is qualified and excited to work in editing cannot find a job doing as much because...well, who knows. Small presses that publish academic work don't make tons of money, and their editors may be underpaid, not paid, or possibly overworked in other academic pursuits and haven't given as much attention to a book as it needed.
The anecdotes about students Karpowitz meets are the most interesting for the connections readers can make to populations they'll likely never encounter, at least, not in the same setting, but it's not always clear what the purpose of the anecdotes is. The last story, though moving and deep, tells the reader little about college in prison.
I'm glad I read this book to get some ideas about my future role as a college instructor in prison, but I've mostly boiled down the main points to a bulleted list.
This is truly a short book if you ignore the index and further reading sections (I don't have the book in front of me right now to be specific on what extras there are). It's about 175 pages of introduction and chapters. However, at times it felt like I was going in circles, with the same concepts repeated in a way that didn't feel introductory or conclusive, but like the book possibly needed a better timeline of information. I also wasn't convinced the focus was reading in prison. Much of it was about the liberal education in general, though Karpowitz does give examples of some of his students addressing a text they discuss in class. There were several points I pulled from the book, however, that I felt were important to remember, so I wrote them down:
"By an 'objective' educational emphasis I mean a tendency to call on students to focus their attention on the objects of study--the texts, controversies, concepts, and narratives put forward--prior to reflexivity, to a reflection on their own individual subject position and its particular relationship to the material at hand."
"Regardless of whether or not we have 'college in prison,' the two institutions share parallel roles in the reproduction of American privilege and inequality."
"The private liberal arts college enrolls only about 1 percent of American college students, but it retains its disproportionate role in the selection and formation of government elites."
"A comprehensive commitment is made to weave remedial or developmental work into the very fabric of the full, broad, liberal arts training."
"...too often academics who venture inside prison turn it into an opportunity to create something new, a chance to experiment with pedagogies or topics that are not found on the main campus." This is argued as a NEGATIVE; the college in prison experience should be as closely replicated to the home campus as possible.
"...the [Bard Prison] Initiative was not conceived as a special intervention on behalf of a particular 'population.'"
"Almost none of those admitted would have made it up to, let alone through, the college's 'normal' screening process."
"[Bard Prison Initiative] typically engages students convicted of serious and often violent crimes."
There were moments in the book when I felt like wasn't smart enough to engage with the author's arguments, but when I showed certain passages to my spouse and we discussed them, I realized there were places in the text that could have been worded more tightly to reduce confusion. For example, "Liberal education allows each student to analyze race and other pressures of structural inequality in the learning that unfolds." If the sentence starts with "liberal education," why must that idea be repeated with "in the learning that unfolds." Education implies learning, so make the sentence come full circle threw me for a loop. There are also a number of typos throughout, for instance, "...of creeating networks...." and "...the truly democratic ambitiom..." that frustrated me. What's even more exasperating is someone like me who wants more work and would is qualified and excited to work in editing cannot find a job doing as much because...well, who knows. Small presses that publish academic work don't make tons of money, and their editors may be underpaid, not paid, or possibly overworked in other academic pursuits and haven't given as much attention to a book as it needed.
The anecdotes about students Karpowitz meets are the most interesting for the connections readers can make to populations they'll likely never encounter, at least, not in the same setting, but it's not always clear what the purpose of the anecdotes is. The last story, though moving and deep, tells the reader little about college in prison.
I'm glad I read this book to get some ideas about my future role as a college instructor in prison, but I've mostly boiled down the main points to a bulleted list.
March 3, 2020
This book discusses the topic of colleges and schools. This is a very controversial topic, and the writer puts forward a three-pronged argument in favor of such programs. I buy the arguments. However, my issue with the book is that it fails to discuss many nuances regarding the students in these programs. For example, at several points in the book, the writer is more willing to discuss "personal responsibility" regarding who committed a crime rather than critiquing the environment and context in which the crime was committed. Because the writer seemed to miss this nuance, he misinterpreted some of the responses of his students. The students were probably very well aware of their actions, but they had more to say about the racialized structures that target Black men and men of color. This book lacked any real critique of those structures.
April 10, 2019
Quite enlightening perspective from someone who values working with incarcerated folks.
The authors interaction with his students was so intriguing at times and that he choose to engage them with liberal arts.
Knowing that prison is rooted in slavery and has grown in terms of over incarcerating poor people of color is a travesty and should be the shame of our nation. Racism is robbing people of the opportunity to uplift themselves and fighting a portion of that racism is investing in people who temporarily cannot help themselves. If more programs like this existed, recidivism would decrease as self development increased.
The authors interaction with his students was so intriguing at times and that he choose to engage them with liberal arts.
Knowing that prison is rooted in slavery and has grown in terms of over incarcerating poor people of color is a travesty and should be the shame of our nation. Racism is robbing people of the opportunity to uplift themselves and fighting a portion of that racism is investing in people who temporarily cannot help themselves. If more programs like this existed, recidivism would decrease as self development increased.
May 8, 2025
Solid introduction to the topic and a great conversation-starter. Touches on a lot of the important questions in the world of college in prison. Jury is out for me on how much I agree with it or like its argument overall, but I enjoyed reading and thinking about it! Hopefully as I think about the topic more and discuss it with more people I will get a better sense.
I did particularly like how Karpowitz emphasizes the intermediate space college provides in prison for engagement with society that is neither submission nor defiance. In my experience so far this is a key insight.
I did particularly like how Karpowitz emphasizes the intermediate space college provides in prison for engagement with society that is neither submission nor defiance. In my experience so far this is a key insight.
August 28, 2025
Meh. This book had some interesting insights about approaches to college education in prison, but the writing was at times very convoluted and overly esoteric. It was hard to follow the main argument, and the author sometimes included anecdotes but didn’t fully explain his reasons for doing so. There were also tons of distracting grammatical errors, and he brought up points that were research-based without citing them anywhere.
June 2, 2021
This was an engaging and solid exploration of the Bard Prison Initiative. I felt that at times, the author veered into somewhat convoluted introspection about his own difficulties navigating some of the contradictions of the systems and structures he was working in. However, the accounts of the students and their educational experiences through the program were interesting.
August 18, 2017
Written by a professor at a liberal arts college, it reads like you would expect something written by a liberal arts professor to read. Not well done at all.
January 21, 2019
A useful resource, but I found the writing long-winded and highly unorganized.
February 7, 2020
A very niche topic, but important in understanding the "justice" system. A nuanced read, but very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews