Class fosters understanding with inmate interaction

This spring, students from IU have been working together with students from the Putnamville Correctional Facility in a class called “Place, Culture, Prison” as part of the Inside-Outside Prison Exchange Program, according to a press release.

The class is made up of 13 IU students and 12 inmates. The class met weekly in the Putnamville facility. Students will make their final presentations about what they learned in the class at 9 a.m. Friday. The class aims to foster a better social understanding of crime, class, incarceration and the like.

“The students have come together over a social barrier that rarely gets crossed. That in itself has created incredible insight about society, social categories and the divisions among us,” said instructor Micol Seigel in a press release. Seigel is an IU associate professor in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies and the American Studies Program.

While this is the second spring that Seigel has taught the class, the Inside-Outside program was founded in 1997 and became a national program in 2004. Since then, it has expanded to include about 275 different courses and about 8,000 students.

“The students have come together to produce artistic performances reflecting on the theme of critical moments in time,” Seigel said. “The results are very beautiful and satisfying to all of them.”