Students Hear About New Prison Partnership
(Posted March 27, 2017)
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On Monday March 20, The Inside-Out Center presented an informational session on its prison-related education programs that will be partnering with Juniata College in fall 2017. This was the first of the Incarceration week's programming. The Inside-Out Center provides social change through transformative education. Created in 1977, the Inside-Out Center allows incarcerated men and women and college students to meet for the mutual benefit of studying crime, justice and related social issues together as peers. Participants of the program have previously stated that Inside-Out, "transformed the way they viewed themselves in the world."
Monday's presenter, Lori Pompa, the center’s creator, stated that she first set foot into prisons 30 years ago and found that there was not any educational programming in prison and most of the inmates were African-American men. The disturbance she felt that first day has continued throughout her career. She believes that the best way to learn about the correction system is by going into the prisons.
One of the first prisoners she met was the second presenter at the Monday program. Tyrone Werts, who served 35 years in Dallas prison, stated that when Pompa came to Dallas prison he was very excited because this was a volunteer program. Unlike others it did not require high school or college diplomas, which Wertz didn't have at the time.
He stated that in elementary school he had a teacher, Mrs. Gomez who assigned them a project of writing a paragraph on what they wanted to be when they grew up. He had a neighbor at the time who allowed him to use his telescope to look at the stars, so he wrote his paragraph on a being an astronomer. What Werts remembers most is how his teacher stated, in front of the whole class when he was done, "boy, you aren't that smart. You'll never be that smart, go back to your seat and come up with something you can actually do." That experience stood out in his mind and became a self-fulling prophecy for him. It wasn't until he was incarcerated and he took an I.Q. test that he found he could compete with college-level students. He explained that his story is not that uncommon from other prisoners.
"Participating in this class," stated Werts is "more than just education. I learned so much about myself." In this class, students and inmates talk together and they have very deep conversations. Conversations held were so deep and so profound that no one wanted to stop having them. "They made folks on the outside and folks on the inside see ourselves different," Werts stated. Pompa added that, "we bring forth the best in each other and learn more about ourselves and our society."
Pompa stated that the growth of her program was different than most. "I loved how this grew. It all grew organically. None of this was planned -- it just emerged naturally," said Pompa. “We were never planning on going international; however, it was wonderful how it grew. It is amazing that what happens from a germ of an idea and how it spreads out into the universe. So you better put on your catcher's mitt and catch it."
One quote that captures the Inside-Out experience is Bomba’s "through dialogue we move through walls." The program dispels the misconceptions that a prisoner is uncontrolled and that college students are stuck-up, privileged individuals. Inside-Out shows these two groups that the other is just a human being and there are opportunities on both sides to evolved and change.
"Inside-Out breaks through that wall. One Brick at a time" stated Pompa.
Marlene Matula ’17, Juniata Online Journalist
Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.