Breaking Down Barriers: Student Experiences of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program

Abstract

The majority of the incarcerated population will be released back into society, so why isn’t society helping to reintegrate ex-prisoners and advocate for them? How can society better understand who is incarcerated when the media floods us with violent images of the incarcerated population and primarily blames African Americans for most crimes? The citizens society incarcerates are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts, yet the prison facilities are often miles away from their families, creating hardship and alienation. Members of society usually only hear one side of the story (from mass media outlets), but what if members of society could hear the other side of the story from incarcerated individuals themselves?