Adapting to the Changing Educational Landscape: Inside-Out Prison Exchange Courses at a Day Reporting Center.  

• In Event: Lightning Talk: Teaching Criminology and Criminal Justice Students: Novel Approaches and Practical Applications

Abstract

This talk will discuss how undergraduate students learn about the criminal justice field within an Inside-Out prison exchange course at a day reporting center compared to those taught in a correctional facility. Historically, Inside-Out prison exchange courses were taught within a correctional facility, however, when access to prison and jail decreased during the national pandemic, the need and desire for Inside-Out educational opportunities still existed. Some Inside-Out Prison Exchange courses adjusted from being taught in custodial settings to being taught in the community at re-entry facilities. This opened the doors and created opportunities for students to experience Inside-Out courses and the field of criminal justice in different ways. I will explore the location change, obstacles, classroom modalities, and successful adaptations made. Finally, creative approaches were revised to collaborate with community partners that ultimately strengthened many of these relationships and over time benefited student access to the changing landscape of the criminal justice field.

Authors

• Schannae Lucas, California Lutheran University

• Mia Deck, Morgan Lewis, Attorney at Law