Maximum Security Prisoners Beat Harvard Students at a Debate on Whether Undocumented Students Should Be Denied Enrollment in Schools

In an exhibition hosted by the Bard Prison initiative, three inmates from the Eastern New York Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Napanoch, New York faced off in a game of wits against three students from Harvard College's debate team. The prison inmates came out on top.

The teams went head-to-head on the topic of whether undocumented students could be denied enrollment in schools by the government, reports TIME. The prisoners argued in favor of the resolution focusing on high dropout rates for immigrants while Harvard students argued against the opposing position, public schools should be allowed to turn away students whose parents entered the U.S. illegally. The inmates said the students would be essentially "warehoused," a term coined by a Wall Street Journal reporter who was present at the debate.

The Ivy League debate team took to their Facebook to comment on their loss, saying "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 posted according to ABC News. "And we are incredibly thankful to Bard and the Eastern New York Correctional Facility for the work they do and for organizing this event."

Bard administrators were not surprised by the success of the inmates. "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.

The Bard Prison Initiative is hosted by Bard College. The program "creates the opportunity for incarcerated men and women to earn a Bard College degree while serving their sentences. The academic standards and workload are rigorous, based on an unusual mix of attention the developmental skills and ambitious college study. The rate of post-release employment among the program's participants is high and recidivism is stunningly low. By challenging incarcerated men and women with a liberal education, BPI works to redefine the relationship between educational opportunity and criminal justice."

Inmates who complete the program get to graduate and receive a diploma. Their coursework is completed without access to the internet, only books.