Remarkable Studies

Each Friday morning they ride. The bus makes its way some 50 miles to Smith State Prison in Glennville, Georgia. The trip allows Eagle students time to share ideas and opinions about crime, criminals, the criminal justice system, and the effects incarceration has on families and communities.

“When Georgia Southern students drive up and see the high fences and sharp-edged wire, it really hits them that this is something different,” said Chad Posick, Ph.D., who teaches the Inside-Out Prison Exchange class to Georgia Southern students. On Fridays, students actually go behind the walls of a maximum-security correctional facility to attend class with incarcerated residents. “They go in scared because they do not know what to expect,” said Posick. “However, once they meet the inmates and start talking to them, they realize the incarcerated students are smart, and they can’t wait for Fridays because this experience is so different for them.”

Every now and then, students need to take a break from classes like English 101 and General Biology to enroll in a course that is a bit, well, unusual. The criminal justice class called “Incarceration, Family and Communities,” has 15 ‘outside’ students and 15 ‘inside’ students. It counts as an upper-level elective and Georgia Southern students earn three credits for the semester-long course. Inmates who pass the class receive a letter to share with the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, to show that they have successfully completed a college-level course.

“Many are looking to turn their lives around, and it is interesting to hear their stories because you gain a better understanding of their background,” said Posick. “The course gives them work to do so that they are ‘doing their time’ productively and challenging their minds, which are often subjected to the redundancy of prison life. The prisoners don’t see many people from the ‘outside,’ so this is a refreshing change for them.”

The course also provides University students with invaluable lessons as they gain a deeper understanding of how the criminal justice system works. “Their view of prison life, which they usually get from movies and television shows, is drastically changed and more realistic,” added Posick. “Many say it has changed what they want to do when they graduate or had given them new tools for the jobs they still intend to pursue.” – Sandra Bennett