Inside Out Prison Exchange Summary

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Temple University professor, Lori Pompa, started a program 20 years ago to help educate prisoners. The Inside-Out Prison Exchange uses a democratic approach to support a total of 30,000 “inside” and “outside” students while also providing courses in criminal justice, social sciences, humanities and arts.
Professors and students in the Philadelphia region gathered at Temple University as well as, at the Graterford prison for an anniversary celebration and conference last weekend. The celebration was a time to reflect everything that Inside-Out has accomplished over the previous years.
“How change happens in the world, it’s almost one person at a time. So we’re multiplying those persons.” Pompa said.
Pompa started volunteering for a tutoring program at the Holmesburg Prison about 30 years ago. She says, “What is this that we’re doing?” It was very clear that the majority were men of color, mostly African American. I saw right away that waste of humanity.”
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She wanted her students to think at a different level by putting them into an unfamiliar environment so they will ask questions they never thought of before.
Then in 1995, Pompa had her students meet with a panel of inmates who were serving life in prison. “ It was amazing conversation, unlike anything I’d had in a prison or a classroom or anywhere,” said Pompa. A man from the panel asked Pompa if she has ever thought of doing this over the course of a