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Prison Inmates Defeat Harvard Students In A Debate

Criminal justice reform will likely be one of the big topics in the 2016 presidential campaign. Candidates should perhaps look into the Bard Prison Initiative. The program may provide a productive template for rehabilitating convicted felons by offering college-level courses.

According to The Wall Street Journal, inmates at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility took part in the Bard Prison Initiative, and the outcome was a win in a war of words over Ivy League students. Three men from the prison won a debate against undergraduates from Harvard College.

The two teams debated the issue of public schools having the ability to deny enrollment to undocumented students. Though they disagreed with the premise, the inmates had to defend the idea. After nearly an hour of back-and-forth, judges awarded the victory to the inmates.

“They caught us off guard,” said Harvard junior Anais Carell.

The prison debaters were not allowed to use the internet for research and could only rely on written texts such as books and magazines. Prison administrators had to approve every material the prisoners were able to use which could take weeks. Even with that disadvantage, the Bard team has also defeated West Point and the University of Vermont.

Source | AllHipHop

Grand Jury Convenes In Case Against Nick Gordon Regarding Bobbi Kristina’s Death

Via Atlanta Daily World– A secret Fulton County grand jury has just been to determine if possible murder charges against Nick Gordon in in the wake of Bobbi Kristina Brown’s tragic death.

A source close to the case told US Weekly Monday night that Brown’s self-described “husband” and his criminal lawyer, Jose Baez, are following the fast-breaking developments.

“The District Attorney is convening a secret grand jury and it’s likely to result in charges against Nick Gordon,” the source told radaronline. It is unknown at this time what those charges will be.

The man who found Bobbi Kris unresponsive will be called to testify. But it doesn’t appear that Gordon will be called because the D.A. doesn’t want to give away their hand in preparation of a possible trial.

Those likely to be called in front of the grand jury are Max Lomas, a drug-dealing friend of Gordon’s and Max’s young girlfriend Danyela Bradley, the insider claimed.

Both were in Brown’s Roswell, Ga., townhouse along with Gordon on the morning of last Jan. 31 when Brown was found face down in a water-filled bathtub.

The 22-year-old was placed in a medically induced coma and never regained consciousness. She died six months later in an Atlanta area hospice on July 26.

A $40 million wrongful death lawsuit was filed against Gordon by her estate, alleging he beat her after an all-night “cocaine and drinking binge.”

FEATURED POST: What Writer’s Block Really Means

The frustrating thing about being a human is that we’re supposed to be so smart, but the sentience that separates us from animals also makes us dumb to our own desires. In a crisis situation, instead of letting our bodies respond the way they are trained to respond, we overthink. In the long game of our lives, instead of being able to hear our inner voice tell us what is important, we let our brains tell us instead what is comfortable.

This is why we do things to lose ourselves like drinking or having relationship after relationship or even just binge-watching Netflix — anything — instead of being still and listening to the uncomfortable thoughts that might surface. We avoid listening because we are afraid of what we might hear. We think we know better. We think we can do it in a way that won’t cause us to be vulnerable or unstable or in a position where we might worry about how we will make rent.

This is especially vexing for creatives, who I think are born with some kind of mission. A story to tell or a work to create or a special place of inspiration or power where they’ll be able to help other creatives. But our special talents are always at war with our egos. We don’t want to play the long game, we don’t want to toil or suffer for what is inside us. We want what our hero artists had, but we don’t want to do the lifetime of work to get there. And so we run into obstacles and we call it writer’s block.

If we want to do our best art, we need to pay attention to what we are communicating to ourselves. Our satisfaction is a language that relays this information to us — and so is our frustration. When something isn’t working, there is a reason for it. There is an opportunity to address the problem and find a way around it. There is something inside us saying “this is not the way.”