[Music]
welcome we’re going to have a
conversation tonight or today I should
say about the inside out prison exchange
program this program was developed about
20 years ago out of Temple University
with Lori pompe who developed the
program and in Ohio we started teaching
inside out classes in 2006 we actually
offer classes now in nine different
prisons in the state 13 different
universities are involved all different
kinds of course topics
the basic premise taking university
students into have class with
incarcerated students so let’s hear from
Brenda who offered the first inside out
class in the women’s facility in Ohio at
the Ohio Reformatory for women thanks
Angela I took the training for inside
out in 2011 had the first class at the
women’s reformatory
in 2012 the topic of my class is
globalization we talk about problems
facing developing nations and we put
particular emphasis on the problems
facing women in developing nations so I
have this semester a group of 15 Ohio
State students and every Wednesday
evening we go out to the prison and we
meet in a classroom with 15 women from
the reformatory right now the groups are
working on papers that they will present
at their last class meeting great we’re
also going to hear from two students who
actually are considered the outside
students from the University Geoffrey
and Elizabeth and unfortunately Monica
and Sondra who are currently inside
students at orw couldn’t be with us
today but we are going to hear from them
via video so we want to start off with
the first question around what this
first night is like for the outside
students and for the inside students as
instructors something we know all too
well is that the first night is
nerve-racking for everybody
so let’s first hear from Jeffrey
was that first night like for you the
first night the inside inside and
outside students go to to set up parts
of the room staring down each other
afraid to intermingle one another the
outside students may walk in with
feeling like they’re not safe that these
are criminals bad people but bad people
and while the inside students might look
at as college students of being uptight
know-it-alls might be there to judge
them and so there’s a bit of distress of
the first night but over time we do like
icebreakers and then we go on and do
group discussions and get to know each
other and we start to realize that we’re
all people were human and that that
prejudice between each other goes away
great okay first up we’re going to
actually hear from Sandra who’s an
inside student in Brenda’s class the
first night of inside out I was feeling
very nervous very anxious but also very
excited to start the group when we
arrived the first thing that I noticed
what had happened was that people had
separated themselves from one another
that the people on the outside sat with
one another and the insiders all sat
together dr. Cheney instructed us to
then go around the room and introduce
ourselves and say a few things about
ourselves and that kind of broke the ice
a little bit and then she had us go into
smaller groups and the one thing that
she asked was that insiders and
Outsiders be together in a group and not
separated anymore
and before long we got on the subject of
traveling and we found out that uh one
of the youngest
of our group an outsider she had
traveled extensively like out of the
United States to other countries and it
was very interesting the interesting
questions you might be thinking right
now is why would you want to go take a
class any class inside a prison or why
would a college professor want to get
trained to teach in prison so let’s ask
that question of our guests Brenda why
did you do the inside out training when
I decided to major in sociology many
years back I chose sociology as major
because I went into study prison and
when I was along the way I did work in a
prison for a couple of years and then I
went back to school and finished my PhD
but mining interest has always been
prison and what we as a society do to
rule-breakers and how can we break the
cycle of prison and one of the ways to
do that is to change attitudes so in a
very small way 15 people at a time
inside out is changing attitudes great
Jeffrey why did you take the class
mainly out of curiosity I mean most of
the time we’re sitting in classes
reading at a textbook and when we get to
go to the prison we could see it and
real person and it’s unique experience
to see it from the inside and see from
the inside but the same time I also was
at the first inside out and that was
back in 2012 I actually dropped out of
college temporary and over time dr.
Cheney kept telling me to come back and
I kept coming back doing the program and
just like a lot of the inside students I
started to get my thirst for education
back and over time I decided to go back
to school and now major in social work
and I want to help people in in the
prison system
great Elizabeth I’m particularly
interested in how you got involved in
the class since you’re a biology major
well I took introduction to sociology
and I thought it was super fascinating
and I have friends that took this class
and he said you have to take this class
it is life changing it’s amazing so I
was like okay I mean I even live in
Marysville
so for sure I’ll take the class and it
was indeed life changing it was it’s
absolutely amazing it’s not it’s not fun
going into a prison it’s kind of
depressing but it’s really neat learning
alongside these women about
globalization and about other things too
because we don’t always talk about
globalization when we’re in our groups
like we’re supposed to so yeah that’s
why I took it okay let’s hear from the
inside students first up we have Sondra
I joined inside out because I was
looking for a different kind of group to
do that
wasn’t just inmate facilitated something
it really struck my interests
well once I started coming to the inside
out group I look forward every time to
coming back and it’s something that I
hope that once I leave here that I can
come back and join and talk about my
experiences with it I just feel like
just having the conversation with people
like people getting together and having
discussion groups it’s a way of changing
the world okay let’s hear from Monica
why she took the class I actually
received a pass to come to dr. Cheney
soon slide out class by accident I was
curious and so I talked to miss rate of
awe and she told me to go ahead and go
and see what was about so I continued to
get passes I continued to go at the time
it was a biweekly discussion for him and
then I learned a new semester was going
to begin in January so I was eager to
sign up any opportunity for me to
further educate
myself and find something to do with my
time is something I want to do to make
the best of a bad situation
so dr. Chaney and the students come in
and we discuss different things we
separate into groups and every time it
just seems like you learn a little bit
more about yourself and at the same time
you learn a little bit more about the
world so that’s why I think is the best
way to explain why I attend is because I
want to I want to be a better person
when I leave here and for just a couple
of hours a week at least it’s almost
like I’m not where I’m at and I’m in a
real classroom basically just got a
discussion talking about school and she
she has a son and right stay and she was
real excited about the fact that she can
sit have a kind of educational
experience with other college students
and yeah so it’s and I talked her into
coming to do the inside out program next
year next semester so I was going to add
about why do we do this I think it is so
important that I have started a second
inside out program so in the fall inside
out will be going to Marion Correctional
Institution and in the spring of 18
we’ll be back at Ohio Reformatory for
women again so that will be I will be
spending a lot of time in prison yeah
actually we tend to find more compassion
and humanity in prison than a lot of
folks want to believe and one of the
things the inside students brought up is
the fact that there aren’t higher
education opportunities for people in
prison that many let alone opportunities
to be in a classroom with other college
students and particularly for women and
men’s serving life who are not eligible
for any type of programming unless
they’re close to five years to parole or
release decisions so I know I don’t know
if you want to say anything Brenda about
the book group that you started to kind
of address some of these concerns people
in Ohio
have life sentences are not allowed to
take any education programs until they
are within five years of their parole
board for some people that means they
will never be eligible for education so
last year I started a book discussion
group with the women doing life at the
reformatory we’ve been reading a book
called women doing life by Laura Lempert
the group has been meeting every other
week and when I initially started I
thought we would go through the nine
chapters of the book in two months or
three months well we are now about
halfway through the book after six
months because the book speaks to the
women and this is their only opportunity
to have any type of educational
experience
Wow I’m also interested Elizabeth how
did the inside-out class especially
since you’re a biology major change kind
of your perception of prison so I think
that especially as a science major
things tend to be more black-and-white
for me that’s what I thought before
taking this program I thought okay bad
people go to prison like they’re in
there because they did something wrong
but I think I think it’s definitely more
complicated than that and it’s
definitely changed how I view prison how
I view the people that go to prison I
think that most of the people are in
there because of missed opportunities
maybe because they don’t have the same
support systems that we do and one of
the things I noticed was that most of
the women are in there for drugs I just
I think that is so interesting because I
don’t understand why we would imprison
someone for an addiction which we now
know to be a disease instead of helping
them some other way so and
touching on the life the life er subject
many some of the women in our class are
in there for life and this is one of the
only programs that that they can do
there are other programs at the prison
like working with animals some
vocational programs as well and they
can’t do those so this is one of the
only programs that they can that they
can come to so I thought I thought that
was sad yeah
frankly let’s hear from monica the
inside student not of course about how
her perception of prison changed through
inside out but maybe her perception of
college shaped or reshaped as a result
of inside out any time in the past that
i ever heard about educational classes
or even college classes being offered to
prisoners I am never really gave it much
thought I know we discussed that before
about how you know we would you know the
idea of people having an opportunity to
better themselves being on inside the
system was a great thing and I never
would have imagined that the tables will
be turned and I’d be in the position
that I am so I’m very fortunate to have
those opportunities and to be able to
take advantage of doing different
educational courses and groups such as
inside out
when dr. Cheney and the students come
into the class it’s refreshing so they
bring current events into conversation
and so on and it’s so it’s almost it’s
just a different take on things at times
it’s like getting away for a little bit
to discuss current events social issues
and entertainment and so on like I said
before to I’ve been grateful to be a
part of something like that and it’s
even made me rethink my own college
education I have an associate’s degree
that I obtained in 2004 and all of my
classes except for a couple of
independent studies were in a classroom
setting so to see the students come into
a
Prison setting is very interesting so I
believe we want to take advantage of
everything that I can
while ARW and even once I leave beyond
that I want to go ahead and continue my
education and at least finish my
bachelor’s degree so so what are some
things that we want folks to take away
from learning about the inside out
prison exchange class Brenda what I
would like people should take away from
inside out is what my students I want my
students to take away is changes and
attitudes different ways of looking at
prison and people who are in prison for
my inside students I want them to feel
like they can go to college many of the
students dropped out of high school and
have prison gd’s and they take my class
and they write papers they do research
papers just like the outside students do
and I tell them that means you can go to
college you can do this and I want them
to leave prison and know that education
is an option for them speaking of that
did you want to say something first
before I oh well I just I just wanted to
say that one of the things that really
shocked me when I was going into prison
was how similar I was to the women there
a lot of them are my age they’re our age
and I mean we have more similarities
than differences so great great speaking
to what Brenda said I think one of the
things we really need to think about is
you know some of the speakers have
talked about going outside of our
comfort zone you know whether that’s for
an educational experience like inside
out you can take some classes as we
mentioned that are offered year-round
through the Ohio State University or
it’s just going outside of your own
house actually or your own community or
your own campus to get to know the other
right and sharing those experiences but
I think you also heard loud and clear
from all of us including the women that
we need more higher education program
and education in general in prisons
because 95% of these folks are getting
out at some point in time and we know
higher education has the best benefit in
terms of reducing recidivism the other
thing is we need to make it more
accessible for when they get out the
Ohio State University in other places
around this country need to ban the box
and quit asking applicants if they have
a criminal background because they’ve
done their time they’ve served their
punishment and if they’re at the stage
of life where they’re trying to actually
get a degree that means they are no harm
to any of us at this point in time so I
want to thank first of all Monica and
Sondra who couldn’t be with us to
participate live and of course the
panelists Brenda Jeffery and Elizabeth
and thank all of you for coming today
and listening to us [Applause]