A Lehman College program (Reentry@Lehman) that serves students who have been affected by the criminal justice system, hosts the fourth and final screening of the PBS award-winning documentary, “College Behind Bars”on Thursday, Sept. 17 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The 55-minute screening will be followed by a panel discussion with film producer, Salimah El-Amin, Lehman College President Daniel Lemons, and Reentry@Lehman members. The documentary is a four-part PBS film series by Lynn Novick that follows incarcerated people through rigorous college programming while exploring how education transforms lives and impacts criminal justice.

“The four-hour series, distilled from nearly 400 hours of cinéma-vérité footage, explores the lives of a dozen incarcerated men and women as they struggle to earn degrees in the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), one of the most rigorous and effective prison education programs in the country.” The film unfolds through unparalleled access inside New York State medium and maximum prisons.

The U.S. leads the world in incarceration. Data from the Prison Policy Initiative reveals that 2.3 million people are incarcerated nationwide —making the per capita incarceration rate higher than any other nation on the planet. Almost half of people who are released from prison, wind up back in jail within five years.

In the film, a BPI student says, “Prison is to punish. It’s not about creating productive beings. Individuals are not being prepared for anything other than what they’ve already been doing – crime.” This film challenges that logic and pushes viewers to reflect on the role of incarceration in building a more just society.

Panel Discussion Guests

• Daniel Lemons, president of Lehman College
• Salimah El-Amin, producer of COLLEGE BEHIIND BARS
• Gregory Harvey, BPI alum, Lehman College alum, shown in the film and Reentry@Lehman Committee Member
• Anne Rice, Africana Studies Associate Professor and Reentry @Lehman Committee Member.

The one-hour panel discussion will be recorded.

Reentry@Lehman said it aims to create a welcoming, supportive, and respectful learning environment for all Lehman students impacted by the criminal justice system, including those who have experienced incarceration and those who have family members who are currently or were formerly incarcerated.

The group said it seeks to address the unique challenges faced by formerly incarcerated students by educating the campus community about these challenges, while also providing support for the students’ academic enrollment, registration, financial aid and referrals to campus and community-based resources and partners that address specific needs such as housing, employment, legal services, personal finances, and scholarship information.

Previous post-screening discussions can be found here.

To register for the virtual screening please visit, https://lehman.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__8H_GKFuSiezj1h7_a9nvA.

For more information about Lehman College, visit: http://www.lehman.edu