By teaching skills like advocacy, communication, conflict resolution, and public citizenship, we bring issues of the city and nation to our students, and bring their voices outside of the jailhouse walls.
Since July 2016, RDP’s volunteers have been teaching debate skills in jails and prisons and bringing formerly incarcerated voices to public debate stages across the nation.
The Rikers Debate Project’s mission is to channel the skills of competitive debate to give incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people a greater say in the decisions that affect their lives.
We teach debate classes on Rikers Island on Saturdays.
RDP currently teaches class Saturday mornings in the veterans unit of the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island.
Before the pandemic, RDP has taught at six New York City Department of Corrections Facilities, at a federal jail in Brooklyn, and two community-based courses in Queens and Brooklyn. Outside of New York, our sister chapters in Houston, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Orleans expanded our model of competitive debate inside prison walls and in so doing, bridging the divide between incarcerated and free populations.