Harvard team loses debate competition to NY prison inmates

NEW YORK: Harvard University's prestigious debate team has fallen to a group of high-security prison inmates of New York here on Tuesday.

The debate competition took place at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Napanoch, where inmates have formed a popular debate club.

The Ivy League undergrads were invited last month to debate the inmates, who take in-prison courses taught by Bard College faculty.

Harvard's team won the national title this year and the world championship in 2014.

But the inmates are building a reputation, too. The club has notched victories against teams from the US Military Academy at West Point and the University of Vermont.

Against Harvard, the inmates were tasked with defending the position that public schools should be allowed to turn away students whose parents came to the US illegally.

Harvard's team responded, but a panel of neutral judges declared the inmates victorious.