"It was awesome."
"I changed my major because of this class."
"Thursday nights felt like being with family."
"This was the best class I’ve ever taken."
For the first time in Michigan history, university students and state prison inmates shared a transformative learning environment. In Fall 2007, 14 UM-Dearborn students enrolled in Soc 490 the Inside Out Prison Exchange class taught by Sociology Professor Lora Lempert; they were joined in the class by 14 men incarcerated at Ryan Correctional Facility in Detroit. The class met Thursday evenings from 6-9 p.m. inside the correctional facility. “Outside students” traveled weekly to the site for the class.
Michigan has the dubious distinction of having the fifth largest Department of Corrections in the country. The state incarcerates more of its citizens than any other Great Lakes State – over 50,000 people are incarcerated on any day in Michigan. As Inside Out student projects demonstrated, it costs the citizens of Michigan far more to incarcerate one person for a year ($31,000) than it does to educate someone at Harvard, or at any of the state’s top tier universities.
The Inside Out class is part of a national program originated by Lori Pompa at Temple University. Inside Out instructors apply for a rigorous pedagogical training prior to offering this course at their respective universities. Since 1997 over 150 instructors from all over the U.S. have participated in the trainings. Dr Lempert is the first from Michigan to train and offer a class. Dr. Paul Draus (Sociology) will train in July 2008, and the Inside Out Prison Exchange class will be a permanent course offering in Sociology and Criminal Justice.
Both “inside” (Ryan) and “outside” (UM-Dearborn) students also apply and are interviewed before they are selected for participation in the class. They answer questions such as: “What do you think is the cause of crime?” and “Why do you want to take this class?” They must also commit to always being prepared for class.
The course urges students and instructor to think about crime and punishment mechanisms in human terms. Criminal activity is often a reflection of other social forces in which we all, by omission or commission, play a part. A singular focus on crime and the relegation of “bad” people to prisons is, therefore, both disingenuous and unproductive. Although crime rates have gone down, incarcerations have continued to rise at grievous economic and social costs to Michigan citizens. As Pompa claims, “Through our inordinate use of incarceration, we are deepening the very problem that we claim to be addressing.”
For student protection, the course operates on a semi-autonomous basis, that is, both inside and outside students are identified only by first names. No surnames are used in class or on papers. Additionally students are prohibited from any form of contact outside the three-hour class – no notes, no phone calls, no letters. On the inside, no one with a criminal sexual conduct sentence is allowed to apply.
Students read texts, discuss material, write papers, and participate in projects. This inaugural class created informative tri-fold brochures on the topics of felony murder, myths and realities of prison life, corrections vs. education for state monies, juvenile lifers, and the sentencing commission. These brochures were distributed to members of the Michigan State Senate and the Michigan House of Representatives, as well as to community members and some religious leaders.
Inside Out Prison Exchange has generated interest from state political leaders as well. State Senators Mickey Switalski, Alan Cropsey, and Hansen Clarke, State Representative Alma Wheeler Smith, and Judge Bruce Morrow all attended the final class at Ryan Correctional.
What can be learned from the “inside students”? What can they learn from the “outside students”? Issues of crime, punishment, justice, victims and victimology, incarceration and many social issues are inherently intertwined. We learn about them literally from the inside out.
For more information visit Temple University's Inside Out site.
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