For the last seven years, Meigs Professor of Sociology Sarah Shannon has cultivated life-changing connections between University of Georgia students and the incarcerated members of our community.
Shannon’s Inside-Out at UGA (SOCI 4470S) service-learning course is modeled after the national Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program and is the first course of its kind at UGA. The course is designed to build relationships between University of Georgia “outside” students with incarcerated “inside” students at the Clarke County Jail. Throughout the semester, the students meet in the same space in the jail and sit alongside each other to discuss topics and readings about the criminal justice system, its intended purposes, its flaws, and how it could be reformed to provide incarcerated citizens new and better opportunities and resources.
“I am so grateful for our partnership with the sheriff’s office that we’ve had for seven years,” Shannon said. “They have continued to welcome our class, and I really appreciate the trust and collaboration.”
“This was truly the highlight of my semester,” said Elaysha, an outside student. “You can say you want to be an activist and care about criminal justice, but until you sit right beside someone, you are not even grazing the surface.”
“This was very rewarding,” said Daniel (O.G. — which stands for ‘old guy’), an inside student. “I was impressed how both inside and outside students were treated as equals, and we really fed off that positive atmosphere.”
Throughout the semester, the students focused on three topics in criminal justice: accountability—understanding the impact of one’s actions and the steps to follow to heal and move forward; desistance—what is needed to break from the cycle of criminality and achieve a stable environment; and prisons and punishment—reflecting on prison statistics, realities, and biases in the United States. With different backgrounds and life experiences, the students shared their perspectives and perceptions, exchanged ideas, and worked together to reflect on issues and envision a more just future.
“We grew up and were sent down different paths,” said L.A., an inside student. “This class has made me think about a lot of things in my past, and I recognized where I went wrong. The criminal justice system failed me, but I failed myself as well. We can change the community and the way people think.”
“I’ve studied the issues, but never came this close to them,” said Caroline, an outside student. “This has renewed my passion for these issues and my commitment to criminal justice reform. And I was also able to prove to myself that I could do this.”
To encapsulate all the topics the students read and discussed, each semester, the class works together to complete a project. This year, they chose to develop a yearbook. Inside the yearbook, they included a summary of the semester, their written reflections on the topics they discussed, and a written letter in favor of the ban-the-box initiative that would remove the box inquiring about criminal backgrounds from college and job applications. The yearbook also has several pages showing how the class grew as a community, including the classic superlatives, funny questions and polls, and a playlist of all the students’ favorite songs.
This yearbook also includes a list of helpful resources for those released from jail to access. The yearbook is available to download from the Inside-Out course’s website and physical copies will remain at the jail for others to read.
“What [this class] has meant the most to me is the bond I’ve made with some of the students,” wrote Comrad, an inside student. “I look forward to seeing them every week, and I’m so proud to see these young people taking the time to get to know someone like me.”
“I knew about flaws and shortcomings of criminal justice, but hearing real human stories about these flaws is very eye-opening to the dehumanization and ineffectiveness of jails and prisons,” wrote Kunal, an outside student. “I will always think about and talk about stories from this class; it has changed my life and views of the world.”
Because of the transient nature of the inside students in the jail system, the semester is shortened to eight weeks for the Inside-Out program. Since launching the course in spring 2017, 67 inside students have graduated from the program, but more than double this number have attended at least one session. To date, nearly 110 outside students have graduated as well.
This semester, 15 outside students and 10 inside students completed the program, while 19 inside students participated in a portion of the abbreviated semester. Five inside students attended from beginning to end, and three of the inside students had perfect attendance. Shannon’s class also had the positive experience of seeing two of their fellow inside students being released from jail during the semester.
To celebrate the end of the semester, the students held a graduation ceremony in the jail before UGA’s Spring Break. The students presented their final yearbook, enjoyed pizza and cake, and all students received a certificate of completion to remember the course and their time together.
“This has definitely taught me about being more liberal and looking at both sides,” said Wood, and inside student. “I was real set in my ways. I thought none of these college students would accept us as human, but this has changed me, and I’ve learned how to accept and not judge others. They see we are still people. These students are smart and caring, and they really love us, and we love them, and we’ll really miss them.”
Disclaimer: In the Inside-Out program, to maintain a level of semi-anonymity, both inside and outside students choose a pseudonym to go by when they meet. Because of this, all students quoted in this article are referred to by these chosen pseudonyms.
