Pedagogical Adaptations for Teaching Transitory Jail Populations

This chapter introduces and examines how an instructor can successfully teach a college-level course in a jail facility. In contrast to a prison environment, the transitory nature of a jail population results in a different set of challenges that an instructor must address in order to lead a successful class. The authors were trained within the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program but have had to adapt this pedagogy to suit a jail environment. The chapter discusses the authors' process of creating their course and provides best practices on how to remain creative and flexible in order to overcome and adapt to the unique experiences inherent in a jail setting. Additionally, the authors have provided their syllabus, sample assignments, and an example of a typical class session to help inspire and support others who are interested in teaching in a jail facility. The chapter is not specific to Inside-Out courses though some of the pedagogical tenets of Inside-Out influence the recommendations of the authors.

Community Partnership Through Transformative Justice

In the Foreword to Gerard Robinson and Elizabeth English Smith's Education for Liberation volume on educational initiatives in prison, Newt Gingrich and Van Jones note that educational programs “do something powerful: they give hope and dignity to the incarcerated.” The authors wholeheartedly agree and while they recognize the importance of higher education programs that confer degrees and therefore credentials out in the free world, they find that education can be broadly understood in prison in ways that greatly enhance the hope and dignity of the incarcerated. In this chapter, they explore the creation of a Japanese-style healing garden at the Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP), a maximum security, 2,000-person male prison in Salem, Oregon. This prisoner-led initiative was a resounding success, despite all the odds against it, because it was animated by a philosophy of transformative justice that both prison administration and prisoners could believe in, and it embraced the need for meaningful and inclusive community partnerships.

Activating Activists

The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the pedagogical and practical importance of learning skills around political advocacy and community engagement in prison-based classes. The primary focus of the exercises described here is upon engaging students in exercises that develop their skills in advocating for social policies that affect them directly. Learning objectives include understanding the challenges of community organizing and consensus-building, developing policy proposal- and grant-writing skills, and developing skills around public messaging.

Pre-College Instruction

Instructors at prison-based college programs face many challenges not encountered on traditional college campuses. Instructors used to conventional campus-based students and teaching environments often find themselves unprepared or overwhelmed because prison-based programs differ in many ways from traditional college classrooms. Many incarcerated students lack the necessary fundamental academic writing and communication skills to succeed in college-level courses but not the intelligence and dedication. Instructors often find themselves unprepared for and inexperienced in teaching remedial-level writing and grammar skills, especially to non-traditional adult learners. This chapter discusses the differences between campus and prison classrooms, incarcerated students' academic backgrounds and needs, and the instructional limitations of teaching in prisons. This chapter provides instructional methodology tailored to the unique needs of incarcerated students, as well as examples of syllabi, worksheets, and practice exercises.

Coalition Building on Campus

This chapter focuses on student organizations for those with criminal convictions. In particular, this chapter examines the challenges associated with creating and maintaining such organizations. Most pointedly, the authors offer advice and direction on how to navigate potential obstacles to forming student groups comprised of convicted students. To do so, this chapter will chronicle a failed organization and a successful organization, highlighting the potential benefits of formation, obstacles to formation, and methods for successfully overcoming barriers to formation. This chapter intends to serve as a guide for faculty and staff at universities seeking to expand the concept of inclusive education by establishing student organizations dedicated to the recruitment and advancement of students with criminal histories. In sum, this chapter is a process analysis informed by the perspectives of two faculty advisors to such student organizations from distinct cultural and political settings.

Fostering Change, Transforming Learning

This is a chapter in which a currently incarcerated student/teaching assistant; a university staff member/former student/teaching assistant; and an instructor of women, gender, and sexuality studies collaboratively examine how the curricular approaches and pedagogical strategies utilized in the course “Writing as Activism,” taught inside a correctional facility, embody and enact the liberatory and transformative potential of prison-based teaching and learning. The authors review a selection of individual and collaborative assignments, activities, and writing exercises, as well as the faculty member's philosophy and practice of self-grading as a mechanism to relocate power and foster accountability. This chapter concludes with instructions for activities and accompanying materials used in this course, including the syllabus, for educators to refer to and adapt for their own use in (carceral) spaces of learning.

Supporting Formerly Incarcerated People Within Institutions of Higher Education

This chapter focuses on the concrete steps that colleges and universities can take to better support formerly incarcerated people on their campuses. The authors discuss the importance of providing the assistance of navigators and peer support networks as well as highlight strategies for reducing barriers to higher education from admissions to completion. The authors close with a discussion on incorporating formerly incarcerated people in program design and in assessing the impact of this important reentry work.

We Are Cal State LA

Cal State LA runs a successful face-to-face Bachelor's Degree completion program at a maximum-security prison. This chapter describes the BA program, including an assessment of the political, academic, and structural challenges. The chapter also outlines two intertwined components of Cal State LA's commitment to transformational education in the prison. The first is WordsUncaged which is open to all students on the yard and extends the transformational opportunities of higher education to a larger number of students than can be accommodated in the formal BA program. The second is Cal State LA's commitment to reentry support, including enrollment on the home campus for all students released prior to degree completion. The chapter argues that serving the prison with the three intertwined components—the BA degree pathway, WordsUncaged, and reentry support—is core to Cal State LA's mission as a public university serving the greater good of the Los Angeles region and the residents of California.

Higher Education Access and Parity

This chapter presents the educational intervention of the Emerson Prison Initiative, which offers a pathway to a Bachelor of Arts in Media, Literature, and Culture to incarcerated students at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord. A program of Emerson College, the Emerson Prison Initiative serves Emerson's mission to increase educational access for historically marginalized students, including those in prison, and maintains rigorous standards for academic excellence for students and faculty comparable to those at Emerson's Boston-based campus. The Emerson Prison Initiative is rooted in the notion that access to a college education can help transform how people engage in the world.

College in the County

Jails often play second fiddle to prisons as sites of higher education programming and research. Jails house those sentenced to relatively short time periods and those held prior to trial. The result—a transient population with uncertain futures—makes for an unstable environment in which to teach and learn. However, jails touch many more lives than prisons and present unique opportunities for educators to intervene at crucial points in the life course. This chapter discusses the specifics of teaching and administering college courses in a county jail. First, this chapter makes the case for jails as important sites for higher education programs within the larger framework of mass incarceration. Second, the wide reach and local context of jails present unique opportunities for colleges and universities providing higher education programming. Finally, the authors provide a potential roadmap for teaching in jail by discussing unique concerns that require creative solutions.