Max Kenner is the founder and director of Bard Prison Initiative which he launched 25 years ago. At Bard College, he is Vice President  for Institutional Initiatives and advisor to the President on Public Policy and College Affairs. Currently, he sits on the New York State Council on Community Justice. His awards are many: JFK Presidential Library's  New Frontier Award and the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Education. B.P.I.  has been featured on "60 Minutes", PBS News Hour, the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post and the docuseries "College Behind Bars" by Ken Burns which was shown on PBS. This 4 part documentary is the inspiring, deeply human story of men and women struggling to earn college degrees while in prison for serious crimes.

Elias Beltran graduated from B.P.I. in 2017 having been incarcerated for 29 1/2 years. He earned a  B.A. in Literature and the Humanities. He is now a PhD candidate at Cornell University. He has been a writing fellow with Bard's MicroCollege at the Brooklyn Public Library as well as at the Harlem Children's Zone and at Cornell for the English Language Support Organization (ELSO).  He continues studying Mandarin Chinese. He is also a T.A. at Cornell, teaching a class on Crime and Punishment. He was awarded a prize given to Teaching Assistants at Cornell. In the Fall of 2025, he will be teaching at  Albion Correctional Facility for Women, a prison in upstate New York. At the  age of 16, Elias was sentenced to 30 years-to-life.

BPI on 60 Minutes: https://bpi.bard.edu/news-stories/news/bpi-on-60-minutes/

Max Kenner with Deidre Faughey: https://bpi.bard.edu/news-stories/news/max-kenner-with-deirdre-faughey/

Plus, you can find a lot more about BPI here: https://bpi.bard.edu/news-stories/

This podcast is proudly sponsored by the Innocence Project of Florida. Visit www.floridainnocence.org for more information. 

Max Kenner is the founder and director of Bard Prison Initiative which he launched 25 years ago. At Bard College, he is Vice President  for Institutional Initiatives and advisor to the President on Public Policy and College Affairs. Currently, he sits on the New York State Council on Community Justice. His awards are many: JFK Presidential Library's  New Frontier Award and the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Education. B.P.I.  has been featured on "60 Minutes", PBS News Hour, the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post and the docuseries "College Behind Bars" by Ken Burns which was shown on PBS. This 4 part documentary is the inspiring, deeply human story of men and women struggling to earn college degrees while in prison for serious crimes.

Elias Beltran graduated from B.P.I. in 2017 having been incarcerated for 29 1/2 years. He earned a  B.A. in Literature and the Humanities. He is now a PhD candidate at Cornell University. He has been a writing fellow with Bard's MicroCollege at the Brooklyn Public Library as well as at the Harlem Children's Zone and at Cornell for the English Language Support Organization (ELSO).  He continues studying Mandarin Chinese. He is also a T.A. at Cornell, teaching a class on Crime and Punishment. He was awarded a prize given to Teaching Assistants at Cornell. In the Fall of 2025, he will be teaching at  Albion Correctional Facility for Women, a prison in upstate New York. At the  age of 16, Elias was sentenced to 30 years-to-life.

BPI on 60 Minutes: https://bpi.bard.edu/news-stories/news/bpi-on-60-minutes/

Max Kenner with Deidre Faughey: https://bpi.bard.edu/news-stories/news/max-kenner-with-deirdre-faughey/

Plus, you can find a lot more about BPI here: https://bpi.bard.edu/news-stories/

This podcast is proudly sponsored by the Innocence Project of Florida. Visit www.floridainnocence.org for more information. 

Joan Dalton taught in the Portland, Oregon public schools and then became an administrator at Oregon's strictest juvenile correctional facility~MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility.  With experience and learning from experts in the field of the "Human Animal Bond", she founded an on-site program pairing boys and dogs to address the troubling behavior of both. In Second Chances, she shares the hurdles that led to positive outcomes for the boys and dogs in the program she calls : POOCH. The dogs found forever homes and the boys continued their education or found employment.

To learn more about Joan Dalton and purchase Second Chances, visit https://joandalton.com/

This podcast is proudly sponsored by the Innocence Project of Florida. Visit www.floridainnocence.org for more information. 

This episode is a re-run of a previously aired episode of Pursuing Justice, highlighting stories for Wrongful Conviction Day.

C.J. Rice was born in 1993 in Philadelphia. At the age of 17, he was wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit. His sentence was 30-60 years. While in prison, he earned  his High School diploma in addition to being certified as a brick layer. He also was certified by

OSHA. In 2023, he was released on bail after his Federal Habeas Corpus petition was granted by the Federal Court of the

Eastern District of Pennsylvania and his conviction was vacated. On March 18, 2024 he was exonerated and the

Philadelphia District Attorney's office dropped all charges.

This podcast is proudly sponsored by the Innocence Project of Florida. Visit www.floridainnocence.org for more information.

Joan Dalton taught in the Portland, Oregon public schools and then became an administrator at Oregon's strictest juvenile correctional facility~MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility.  With experience and learning from experts in the field of the "Human Animal Bond", she founded an on-site program pairing boys and dogs to address the troubling behavior of both. In Second Chances, she shares the hurdles that led to positive outcomes for the boys and dogs in the program she calls : POOCH. The dogs found forever homes and the boys continued their education or found employment.

To learn more about Joan Dalton and purchase Second Chances, visit https://joandalton.com/

This podcast is proudly sponsored by the Innocence Project of Florida. Visit www.floridainnocence.org for more information. 

This episode is a re-run of a previously aired episode of Pursuing Justice, highlighting stories for Wrongful Conviction Day.

Huwe Burton Spent 18 years in Prison from Age 16-34 for a crime he did not commit

Arrested in 1992 for a heinous crime he did not commit, Anthony Graves was sentenced to death at the age of 27 in Texas. He was incarcerated for 18 years. He was finally exonerated and released in 2010 and works tirelessly for change in our justice system. He created the Anthony Graves Foundation and is Director of Community Outreach for the Harris County Public Defender's  Office in addition to operating a  nonprofit called: Peer Navigation Project. His story was shown on "48 Hours" entitled: "Grave Injustice".

Learn more about the Anthony's non-profit, Peer Navigator Project

Watch 48 Hours' Grave Injustice
Read Pamela Colloff's articale in the Texas Monthly called Innocence Lost

This podcast is proudly sponsored by the Innocence Project of Florida. Visit www.floridainnocence.org for more information. 

This episode is a re-run of a previously aired episode of Pursuing Justice, highlighting stories for Wrongful Conviction Day.

Kristine Bunch spent 16 years in prison on a charge of arson, which killed her 3 year old son. She was proven innocent of these charges.
She has a nonprofit organization called: Justice for Justus which helps people coming out of  prison.

Justis4JustUs: an organization founded by Kristine to help exonerees transition back into society after prison.

Women Exonerees: Stories of Wrongful Conviction

Indiana's New Compensation Statute; New Discoveries in Fire Science.

Arrested in 1992 for a heinous crime he did not commit, Anthony Graves was sentenced to death at the age of 27 in Texas. He was incarcerated for 18 years. He was finally exonerated and released in 2010 and works tirelessly for change in our justice system. He created the Anthony Graves Foundation and is Director of Community Outreach for the Harris County Public Defender's  Office in addition to operating a  nonprofit called: Peer Navigation Project. His story was shown on "48 Hours" entitled: "Grave Injustice".

Learn more about the Anthony's non-profit, Peer Navigator Project

Watch 48 Hours' Grave Injustice
Read Pamela Colloff's articale in the Texas Monthly called Innocence Lost

This podcast is proudly sponsored by the Innocence Project of Florida. Visit www.floridainnocence.org for more information. 

This episode is a re-run of a previously aired episode of Pursuing Justice, highlighting stories for Wrongful Conviction Day.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty is a N.Y. Times best selling author and contributing writer for The Atlantic. She was a correspondent for NPR as well where she covered the Justice Department and Religion. Her awards include: 2 Gracie Awards, National Headline Award and others. She wrote an investigative piece for The Atlantic on the case of Ben Spencer which led to her decision to write: Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, A Conviction and the Fight to Redeem American Justice published in August 2024.

Buy Barbara's Book Bringing Ben Home Here.
Read Barbara's Articles on The Atlantic
Visit Barbara's Website

This podcast is proudly sponsored by the Innocence Project of Florida. Visit www.floridainnocence.org for more information.