Debate team from Harvard loses while competing with New York prison inmates

After being crowned as world champions in 2014, the Harvard debate team lost a friendly competition with the inmates of New York prison, who undertake college courses taught by faculty from nearby Bard college, and where inmates have formed a popular debate club. The showdown took place at the Eastern Correctional Facility in New York.

Inmates can earn various degrees through the initiative, which is taught primarily by Bard faculty. About 15% of the all-male inmates at the correctional facility in Napanoch are enrolled. While in prison, they learn without the help of the internet, relying instead on resources provided by the college.  In the two years since they started a debate club, the prisoners have beaten teams from the US military academy at West Point and the University of Vermont. The competition with West Point, which is now an annual affair, has grown into a rivalry. At Bard, those who helped teach the inmates were not particularly surprised by their success.

“Students in the prison are held to the exact same standards, levels of rigor and expectation as students on Bard’s main campus,” said Max Kenner, executive director of the Bard prison initiative, which operates in six New York prisons. “Those students are serious. They are not condescended to by their faculty.” Students on the Harvard team were not immediately available for comment, but shortly after the loss they posted a comment on a team 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,” they wrote. “And we are incredibly thankful to Bard and the eastern New York correctional facility for the work they do and for organizing this event.”

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