Harvard Debate Team Crushed By New York Prison Inmates Debate Team

In a surprising turn of events, the Harvard debate team, the same team that won a national title months ago, was defeated by the debate team of inmates from a New York prison.

The entertaining debate took place at the Eastern Correctional Facility in New York, located near Bard College. In September, the facility invited the Harvard’s debate team for a friendly banter.

In the friendly competition, the two teams had to debate whether public schools should be allowed to deny students who are children of parents who came to the U.S. illegally. The inmates’ team was told to argue in favor of turning away the students, an argument that they “fiercely disagreed” with.

The debate took place on Friday night. On one end, there were three inmates serving time for heavy crimes. On the other side were three undergraduates from Harvard. After an hour of back-and-forth from the two teams, the inmates’ debate team was declared a winner by neutral judges. The prison team, apparently, was able to give arguments that the Harvard team had not thought of.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the audience, which consisted of 75 prisoners, erupted into applause when the prison team was declared a winner.

Most prisoners live hard lives while incarcerated, but prisoners in the Eastern Correctional Facility are lucky to be located near a college. Inmates can be part of the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), which aims to give incarcerated men and women a chance to earn their college degrees while they are serving their sentences. The initiative offers more than 60 courses each semester, and there is consistent success among those who are released from prison after joining the program. According to a report by the Huffington Post, only less than 2 percent of Bard students who were incarcerated have gone back to prison.

Not just anyone can join the BPI. Inmates have to write an essay and go through a rigorous process in order to qualify and get the chance to earn their degree. Max Kenner, the founder of BPI, says that the initiative is a “grueling process,” but it comes with great rewards.

“There is so much talent in the U.S. that has no access, no opportunity, that is completely unengaged by leaders in higher education. But we know extraordinary talent can be found in the most unconventional places.”

Beating the Harvard debate team wasn’t the first feat for the inmates. According to The Guardian, the inmates have defeated debate teams from the University of Vermont and from the U.S. military academy since they started the debate club a couple of years ago. Kenner said that the BPI debate team is treated just like the students in Bard’s main campus.

“Students in the prison are held to the exact same standards, levels of rigor and expectation as students on Bard’s main campus. Those students are serious. They are not condescended to by their faculty.”

The Harvard debate team said that they were very impressed with the inmates’ preparation, especially since they didn’t have internet access. One of the team members from the Harvard team said, “They caught us off guard.” The Harvard debate team also posted a congratulatory message to the inmates on their official 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. And we are incredibly thankful to Bard and the eastern New York correctional facility for the work they do and for organizing this event.”

Just before the event, one of the inmates, who was convicted of manslaughter, said that he was nervous competing with Harvard, but that a win from them will “make a lot of people question what goes on in here.”

“We might not be as naturally rhetorically gifted, but we work really hard.”

[Image via YouTube]