BARD PRISON INITIATIVE DEBATE TEAM V. HARVARD DEBATE TEAM
In a debate last month, an inmate debate team from Eastern New York Correctional Facility beat a national championship-winning debate team from Harvard.
The inmates, students of the Bard Prison Initiative, won using an argument they strongly disagreed with: that undocumented immigrant children should be barred from attending public schools. The Bard team caught the Harvard students off-guard, asserting that when the public schools (AKA “dropout factories”) deny enrollment to the undocumented kids, private schools and non-profits will step in and give kids a better education than they would have received in the public school system.
The team of three inmates, who are serving time for manslaughter, also dominated the debate teams from West Point Military Academy and the University of Vermont. And the Bard students do not have access to the internet to prepare for their debates. They have to request books and articles to research their topics.
The Wall Street Journal’s Leslie Brody has the story. Here’s a clip:
Ironically, the inmates had to promote an argument with which they fiercely disagreed. Resolved: “Public schools in the United States should have the ability to deny enrollment to undocumented students.”
Carlos Polanco, a 31-year-old from Queens in prison for manslaughter, said after the debate that he would never want to bar a child from school and he felt forever grateful he could pursue a Bard diploma. “We have been graced with opportunity,” he said. “They make us believe in ourselves.”
Judge Mary Nugent, leading a veteran panel, said the Bard team made a strong case that the schools attended by many undocumented children were failing so badly that students were simply being warehoused. The team proposed that if “dropout factories” with overcrowded classrooms and insufficient funding could deny these children admission, then nonprofits and wealthier schools would step in and teach them better.
Ms. Nugent said the Harvard College Debating Union didn’t respond to parts of that argument, though both sides did an excellent job.
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In the morning before the debate, team members talked of nerves and their hope that competing against Harvard—even if they lost—would inspire other inmates to pursue educations.
“If we win, it’s going to make a lot of people question what goes on in here,” said Alex Hall, a 31-year-old from Manhattan convicted of manslaughter. “We might not be as naturally rhetorically gifted, but we work really hard.”
The Washington Post’s Pete Holley explains why, while impressive, it shouldn’t be a surprise that inmates bested the Harvard boys. Here’s a clip:
It sounds like an underdog story plucked from the pages of a yet unwritten Walt Disney screenplay — and in some ways, it is.
But it’s also worth pointing out the fallacy of our underlying assumptions about such a matchup — the first (and most pernicious) being that criminals aren’t smart. If a definitive link between criminality and below-average intelligence exists, nobody has found it.
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Some of the program’s students have continued their educations at Yale and Columbia universities, Max Kenner, executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative, told the AP. He noted that his students “make the most of every opportunity they have” and aren’t treated like men with criminal records in the classroom.
“Students in the prison are held to the exact same standards, levels of rigor and expectation as students on Bard’s main campus,” Kenner told the AP.
LAPD SHOOTS MAN WHO THROWS BEER BOTTLE THROUGH WINDOW, TIMES EDITORIAL CALLS FOR TRANSPARENCY
On Saturday night, Los Angeles police officers fatally shot a man they believed to have thrown a beer bottle, shattering their radio car’s rear window. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has said little about the shooting. We do know that officers said they believed they were being shot at when their window shattered, and that the man was not found to have a gun.
While noting that law enforcement officers are forced to make extremely difficult split-second decisions to protect protect their own safety and the safety of the public, an LA Times editorial urges transparency from the LAPD and the city regarding the shooting, so that suspicions about the killing are not left to “fester.”
Here’s a clip:
Few facts about this latest incident have been released to the public. Two Los Angeles Police Department officers in a patrol car were stopped at a light at Victory and Van Nuys boulevards Saturday night when a 40-ounce beer bottle crashed through the back window. The officers got out and shot to death a man who they thought threw the bottle. That’s it. The police haven’t even disclosed the dead man’s name.
In the absence of facts, people are liable to fill in the blanks with a narrative that won’t necessarily favor the officers. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has been too quiet on this case, saying only that the main question is whether the officers’ perception of imminent danger was reasonable. There are others that are just as important. Was the dead man the bottle thrower? Why did the officers believe they were in danger? Was it reasonable for them to start firing before they knew they had the right person, or whether he was armed? Are they being adequately trained to deal with such situations?
MORE ON THE BILL PACKAGE TO CURB THE OVER-DRUGGING OF CALIFORNIA’S FOSTER KIDS
On KPCC’s Take Two journalist Karen De Sá talks about a newly-signed package of bills to protect CA’s foster kids from over-drugging, and her powerful five-part series on the excessive and unchecked use of psychotropic meds on California’s foster children (which was sparked the legislative action). Take a listen.
SACHI HAMAI NAMED LA COUNTY CEO
The LA County Board of Supervisors voted in a closed-door session to appoint the county’s interim CEO, Sachi Hamai as the permanent CEO.
LA Daily News’ Sarah Favot has more on the decision. Here’s a clip:
“Sachi has been an outstanding county leader throughout her career and has excelled as our interim CEO, rapidly responding to reforms critically needed inside the county and tackling reforms in service to improving the quality of life for our county residents,” Antonovich said in a statement.
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said in an interview the board commissioned a detailed evaluation, conducted by an outside evaluator, of Hamai’s job performance in her interim role.
“Everyone is very happy with her,” Kuehl said.
Hamai was appointed the county’s interim CEO in December following the installment of two new board members Kuehl and Supervisor Hilda Solis. Hamai replaced Brence Culp, who was briefly appointed interim CEO by the previous board following the retirement of longtime CEO William Fujioka. Fujioka served as CEO for seven years….
The CEO’s duties include oversight of the county’s $27.1 billion budget, labor relations, legislative advocacy and capital planning.
Hamai will also continue to oversee the county’s initiatives on homelessness, heath care, criminal justice and child welfare.