Lifers Educating Lifers

• In Event: Prison Education

Abstract

The authors facilitate a Lifers’ Association at an all-male, medium-security state correctional facility. The members of the Lifers’ Association are all serving long-term sentences. The organization itself aims to build community both within and outside of the prison. The association members oversee service projects within the prison (i.e. planting flowers before Memorial Day). The members have created an orientation manual for new inmates to the prison. In our role as facilitators, the authors have overseen the curriculum development and administration of the final exams for the peer-led courses. The peer-led courses are filling an important void. Funding for programming in the prison system has diminished or been eliminated especially for individuals serving long sentences. These peer-led courses are providing education opportunities to those who otherwise would not have them. This presentation will discuss how the lifers’ association was formed, how it functions, and describe in detail the peer-led courses. Information will be provided in such a manner that the association and its positive attributes could be replicated in other jurisdictions.

Authors

• Elizabeth Maier, University of Central Oklahoma

• Jaime Burns, University of Central Oklahoma