Reaching Through the Bars: A Dialogue Across a Divide of Race, Class, Education and Incarceration

• In Event: The International Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program II

Abstract

In the fall of 2013, in my work as a teaching fellow at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), and drawing on years of teaching men held at the Cuyahoga County jail, I organized a class comprised of students from both institutions. Our course topic was incarceration and race, including a close look at the relevant history. The two groups did the same readings and followed the same syllabus on a parallel schedule. At the end of each of the five units we engaged in a dialogue, via teleconference.
The two institutions, and the two groups of students themselves, started the course somewhat wary and uninformed. Strict policies on confidentiality, anonymity and mutual respect had to be weighed against the notion that real learning must emerge from relationships, honest and rough as they sometimes can be. With a class involving people of such varied backgrounds and experience, and with such freighted subjects being examined, that balance was not always easy to maintain. Our discussions crackled with stereotypes blatant and subtle and some of the most poignant moments involved confronting them. Common ground was clearly achieved, but so was the awkward conclusion that a number of things – many rooted in race, class, education levels, etc. – were not held in common and likely never would be.

Author

• Benjamin Sperry, Case Western Reserve University