Book recommendation: Newjack

Hi everyone,

I just finished reading an amazing book about the experience of being a correctional officer at Sing Sing Prison in New York.  Newjack is by Ted Conover, who is a journalist and was interested in writing about the officer training academy.  When his request was rejected, he instead applied to become an officer, went through the training, and worked as a CO for a year. 

It's a fabulous book and really well-written, and sheds some light on what that job really means.  Plus there's some really interesting prison history in there as well (interesting to me, anyway, but maybe I'm just the world's biggest nerd). Here's a link to the site with reviews, if you're interested.

Happy reading!

2010 Final Class Project by Maddy: Update

Months ago, Maddy from Oregon posted this blog about her literature Inside-Out class: 2010 Final Class Project.

Now here's a really exciting update, with the entire final project available online. There is some really exciting content from the inside and outside members of the class: literary essays, poetry, artwork, and open letters to the class.

I highly recommend that everyone view their final class project here: 2010 Literature and Ethics.

The Inside-Out Alumni Group: Philadelphia Chapter Update

The Inside-Out Alumni Group: Philadelphia Chapter was founded last June 2010. Since its inception, the group has expanded, diversified and created new opportunities for Inside-Out Alumni in the Philadelphia area. Currently, the group is comprised of Inside-Out Alumni from Temple University and Community College of Philadelphia (CCP). In January 2011 and hosted by the National Office, 15 alumni group members participated in an inaugural alumni mini-training, in which they had an opportunity to learn about facilitation, the Inside-Out model, and Inside-Out pedagogy. Inside-Out Alumni: Philly is currently partnering with CCP’s Re-Entry Support Project at Cambria, a minimum-security facility in North Philadelphia. For five weeks, from March 3 – March 31, Philly Alumni are holding Inside-Out inspired workshops as part of the Re-entry Support Project’s Cambria Pilot program. 12 members from I-O Alumni: Philly along with 17 CCP students in Cambria meet Thursday evenings to have dialogues about important issues in our community. Workshop content consists of Family, Education and Employment, Race issues, and Community and The Criminal Justice System. I-O Alumni: Philly is also currently discussing future fundraising ideas to raise money for Inside-Out projects, both nationally and locally. We are looking forward to participating in The Re-Entry Support Project’s second cohort in Fall 2011, recruiting new members, and holding fundraisers for Inside-Out in the near future!

If you are looking to get involved with I-O Alumni: Philly, or want to learn more, contact us at tuioalumni@gmail.com. Join the Movement!

-- Francesco Campanell & Cyndi Zuidema

Looking for new alumni ideas

Hey everyone,

We're working nationally and locally to develop new ideas for alumni projects. We're hoping to create a variety of ways for Inside-Out alumni to stay involved, whether they are connected to a local Inside-Out group or not. We hope to have more folks writing on the blog (to connect, please email nationalinsideoutalumni@gmail.com)

We imagine that some groups can form new projects and programs as alumni. For those people, we're looking for more ideas like the youth book club in Oregon or the re-entry program in Philadelphia. Any suggestions?

It's also possible that we as an organization could help get people hooked up with programs with similar ideologies, that aren't affiliated with Inside-Out. An example in Oregon would be volunteering with Sponsors, a really fabulous re-entry program in Eugene, which is a really fabulous organization and is co-directed by Inside-Out trained Paul Solomon.

So if you've got ideas, please comment! We'd love to hear from you.

Sister Helen Inside-Out quote

Sister Helen Prejean has become a huge supporter of Inside-Out Program since being involved with the writing workshop in Oregon in October 2010. She spoke in Denver last weekend, and told the crowd:

"There are amazing things happening already: young people waking up to the real issues of social justice in the world. They have that Inside-Out Program that has college students taking classes with folks in prisons. You should see what they are doing! That's the real power of meeting people seeing who they are and how they live. That's how people get to new understanding."