Prison Inmates Beat Harvard Debate Team In National Competition

Guess who beat the three Harvard debate team members on Friday?

An opposing group of three people serving time for manslaughter at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility. They were the underdogs, but they came on top.

The Harvard team can cheer up that the prison team had also won against the ranked University of Vermont as well as the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, according to HNGN.

"They caught us off guard," said one of the Harvard debaters.

So both teams gauged their work and exhibited their work through the Bard College's Prison Initiative, which was a big success.

The prison inmates were not allowed to research through the Internet, while even preparation materials such as books and articles take a long time to get approved. Still, they came prepared.

"We are all human," said Judge Mary Nugent. "I don't think we can ever judge devoid of context or where we are, but the idea they would win out of sympathy is playing into pretty misguided ideas about inmates. Their academic ability is impressive."

The Bard Prison Initiative offers higher learning to inmates, Ring of Fire Radio  noted. While the program has 300 inmate graduates, it faces a stiff competition to get into the Bard program.

The inmates manage to get in through essays and interviews. For every inmate, there are 10 applicants.