Inside-Out Prison Exchange Instructor Training

Posted by on March 5, 2004

Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program:
Exploring Issues of Crime & Justice Behind the Walls
Program & Training Information

2004 Inside-Out Instructor Training
* July 13-19, 2004, Philadelphia, PA *

MISSION
The mission of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is to create opportunities for dialogue and collaborative projects between those on the outside and those on the inside of the nation’s correctional facilities. A national program based at Temple University in Philadelphia, Inside-Out aims to transform ways of thinking about issues of crime and justice and their impact on society, and to create lasting channels of communication between institutions of higher learning and correctional facilities.

BACKGROUND

Under the auspices of Temple’s Criminal Justice Program, more than 6,500 Temple students have visited Philadelphia-area correctional facilities over the past decade. Seven years ago, one of the life-sentenced men with whom a class had met proposed the idea of an ongoing dialogue between students and prisoners. In the fall of 1997, Temple realized his vision by creating a course called “The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program: Exploring Issues of Crime and Justice Behind the Walls.” To date, approximately 250 university students and 350 incarcerated students have participated in the program. In the past year, Temple has made Inside-Out an official program of the College of Liberal Arts and, with the support of a Soros Justice Senior Fellowship, Lori Pompa, program director, is taking Inside-Out to colleges and universities nationwide.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The core of the Inside-Out Program is a 15-week course, meeting once a week, through which 15-18 undergraduate students and the same number of incarcerated men or women attend class together inside prison. The class explores various issues of crime and justice, and includes units entitled: “What are Prisons For?”; “Why Do People Commit Crime?”; “A Critical Analysis of the Criminal Justice System”; “Punishment vs. Rehabilitation”; “Myths and Realities of Prison Life”; and “Victims and Victimization.” All participants read a variety of criminal justice texts and write several papers; during class sessions, students discuss issues in small and large groups; and, in the final month of the class, students work together on a class project.

Crucial to the Inside-Out pedagogy is the powerful exchange that occurs between “inside” and “outside” students. It is the reciprocity and authenticity of this exchange that makes Inside-Out unique. When “outside” students enter the world of incarceration, they come face to face with some of the realities of life in prison, while bringing “outside” realities inside. The result is a dynamic and constructive dialogue that inspires participants to generate new ideas and fresh solutions — all focused on changing both individual lives and the attitude of public opinion.

PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY

Inside-Out is an opportunity for college students and others to go behind the walls to reconsider what they have come to know about crime and justice – but it is more than that. It is also an opportunity for those inside prison to place their life experiences in a larger framework. However, above all, Inside-Out is a new way of seeing the world — a lens that brings into focus realities distorted by stereotypes and myths. Participants not only learn to look at particular issues from new perspectives; they learn to see themselves as actors, in relation to these issues – as potential agents of change.

It is easy to simplify and disregard problems as long as they remain abstract and unseen. By giving issues of crime and justice a human face and a human voice, Inside-Out enables participants to learn about these issues and about each other — those on the inside and those on the outside — in all their complexity. Inside-Out thus equips participants with both the knowledge and the understanding to address criminal justice issues through action. The program rests on the belief that individuals, who learn to see beyond the simplistic assumptions that dominate public opinion on crime and incarceration, will in time, bit by bit, transform public thought.

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Lori Pompa is the Founder and Director of The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. In Fall 2002, she was named a Soros Justice Senior Fellow, providing the opportunity to develop Inside-Out into a model for national replication. As a faculty member of Temple’s Criminal Justice Department and the former Director of Experiential Learning, Lori Pompa has used a hands-on learning approach in her teaching for the past 11 years. She has taken thousands of students behind
the walls to enter into dialogue with the men and women imprisoned there. Going in and out of prisons for the past 19 years, her work has included education, counseling, social work, and advocacy about issues of concern to incarcerated men and women. She has been involved in nearly a dozen other community-based programs and projects in the Philadelphia area. She is a licensed social worker with an MSW from Rutgers University.

INTERESTED IN LEARNING ABOUT THE INSIDE-OUT TEACHING MODEL?
THIS SUMMER! July 13-19, 2004

Take part in a week-long training that will prepare you to bring Inside-Out to your college or university campus!

WHO:
College professors, adjunct instructors, teaching assistants, and other professionals interested in starting an Inside-Out Program at their college or university.

WHAT:

A comprehensive training program that covers everything necessary to develop a course in the Inside-Out model: curriculum development, setting parameters, institutional relationships, group dynamics, interactive pedagogical approaches, and much more. It is an opportunity to lear this transformative educational method through observation, hands-on experience, dialogue, and engagement with a working group inside Graterford Prison. Training will be followed by consultation to assist in on-site program development.

WHERE:

Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and the State Correctional Institution at Graterford, a maximum-security state prison an hour outside of Philadelphia.

WHEN: July 13-19, 2004

WHY:
Inside-Out provides a unique pedagogical approach that has the potential for far-reaching change for everyone involved — college students, prison participants, as well as the instructor facilitating the class. IT IS TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION AT ITS BEST!

For application information contact:

The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program
Tel: (215) 204-2283
Fax: (215) 204-3731
E-mail: inout@temple.edu

Website Available Early March 2004
http://www.temple.edu/inside-out