Social Inclusion 从 the Inside-Out
In 2016, we approached Limestone Correctional Facility, a large maximum-security prison that holds approximately 2200 men, ，看看联利联能否协助满足该设施的教育需要 本地新闻文章. A series of meetings culminated in our first course offering, an interdisciplinary experiment we called “Crime and Punishment in American Culture,” which combined our areas of expertise in the social sciences and humanities. 这门课, 结果很受欢迎, filled a unique niche in the facility, where existing programming was primarily trade-based. We learned many pedagogical lessons 从 this experience, which we detail in an article we wrote together for the 高等教育编年史. According to our course evaluations, 文学和犯罪学的交叉也帮助学生们更好地了解自己被监禁的途径. 这激发了我们去寻找其他的编程模式来加深对犯罪问题的反思和批判性探究, 惩罚, 和治疗 our students were craving. 第二年, 我们实施了两种新的编程模式，它们也已发展成为研究领域:IF项目和Inside-Out监狱交流项目.
IF项目
IF项目 is “a collaboration among law enforcement, currently and previously incarcerated adults, and community leaders focused on intervention, 预防, and reduction in incarceration and recidivism.这个程序, 是由警探金·博古茨基和被关押在华盛顿女子矫正中心的居民雷娜塔·艾布拉姆森于2008年创立的, evolved into a writers’ program and series that poses the question, “如果有人能说些什么或做些什么来改变导致你入狱的道路, 它会是什么?“我们很高兴能在石灰石惩教所和UNA接待Bogucki侦探和她的团队，放映他们的纪录片.
IF项目 Documentary Trailer 从 凯瑟琳·霍兰| TinFish Films on Vimeo.
2017年，在接受了IF团队的培训，并与石灰石的一组男性试点团队一起运营了编剧系列之后, 我们与纽约大学合作 Betagov to create and implement a randomized controlled trial the following year. 我们想知道该项目强大而密集的表达性写作和亲社会分享模式是否为参与者带来了可衡量的积极结果. Many of their written insights were stunning, 发自内心的, and revealed a deep-rooted sense of social isolation:
“IF at that time someone had said, ‘Don’t give up. 你是重要的. 你的痛苦很重要. 你的想法很重要. 我知道这很痛. But there are some constructive ways to deal with it. You can get help but, if you quit, that help may never come.“如果有人能告诉我，我的选择会让我和其他人的事情变得更糟, I believe I would have hung in there a little longer…”
我们的写作课程旨在通过富有同情心的倾听和分享来减轻孤独感. 虽然我们的样本很小, 我们发现，在我们的干预组中，焦虑显著减少，孤独感略有显著减少. 我们在2019年南方社会学学会年度会议上展示了我们的研究结果，并正在努力发表一篇文章，更详细地讨论该计划和我们的发现.
The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program
We also brought the international Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program to Alabama for the first time in Spring 2018. 该项目将被监禁(“内部”)和非监禁(“外部”)的学生聚集在同一个教室里，学习文学和犯罪学的交叉. 该计划是通过 UNA的英语系 and is cross-listed with Political Science and Criminal Justice. Inside-Out classes are democratic, 为基础, 并在顶点达到高潮, student-led small group projects.
我们的主题包括“美国文学中的恢复性司法”和“文学中的风险和弹性”.今年, we were pleased to host the Actors 从 the London Stage, 谁在石灰石剧院演出了《首页》——这是在石灰石剧院上演的第一部戏剧.
我们的顶点项目集中在对剧中单个角色的风险和复原力分析上. 然后，学生们被要求通过创造性的表演来展示他们的分析. 这组学生用他们的分析写出了肯特伯爵的另一种结局, which they deliver in a Shakespearean sonnet:
Other videos and photos that document the course are available on our UNA Institutional Repository site. M. 风暴斯宾塞, 我们的研究生研究员, 还帮助开发了一种工具来评估Inside-Out对学术自我效能感的影响. 我们将在旧金山举行的2019年美国犯罪学学会上展示我们的研究结果. 参加Inside-Out课程获得研究生学分的UNA学生也向UNA校园和当地社区介绍了他们的经历.
Beyond the course, we continue to meet on a monthly basis in our Inside-Out 智库, “Restorative Justice for Alabama.” 我们的智库将于2020年夏季开始举办该项目的国际讲师培训. 来自世界各地的教师将前往UNA和石灰石惩教设施，接受培训，成为Inside-Out项目的辅导员. Our 智库 is also beginning some research of its own. We have just completed a training in Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) that we are using to launch a new collaborative research project.
我们感谢阿拉巴马人文基金会和我们的UNA管理人员对我们这些倡议的支持!
Social Inclusion: Why It Matters
“Inside-Out项目提醒我，我仍然是社会的一部分，我对社会问题的投入和意见仍然很重要. For two hours a week, I found a way to revisit freedom. 谢谢你给我们带来生命，让我们知道我们没有被遗忘.” ~学生内部参与者
“Thank you so much for this chance of understanding. To know that I’m not alone changed so much for me.” ~IF项目参与者
这些项目的强大之处在于，它们故意打破了将囚犯与更广阔的世界隔离开来的内外鸿沟. IF项目和它的纪录片试图改变我们对被监禁者的看法, and the way that incarcerated people think about themselves. The Inside-Out program brings the university into the prison and vice versa:
根据 司法统计局, 95% of people who are in prison will be released back to their communities; unfortunately, 67%的人将重返监狱. 我们必须决定, 作为一个社会, 我们是否要支持那些能让这95%的人获得更高成功率的项目和服务——这就是问题所在, whether we will embrace policies that are based on inclusion rather than exclusion. One of the concepts that undergirds indigenous practices of restorative justice is ubuntu, an African communitarian view that sees human beings as undeniably interconnected. 社会包容, 然后, is not only a healing salve for our incarcerated students, 这是一种世界观，要求我们重新调整我们对犯罪的看法，着眼于治疗, 重返社会, 和亲属关系. As one of our outside students wrote, “Inside-Out has shown me that all of us, 校内和校外学生, have more in common than one would imagine.”,, 另一个人写道, “Inside-Out has shown me connections can be formed with anyone in any circumstance, not just people whom I consider to be similar to me.”