NCJ Number
136764
Journal
Journal of Correctional Education Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1992) Pages: 46-51
Date Published
1992
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This study is based on the diaries written by students at Illinois State University who participated in a 3-hour encounter session with inmate students at Prairie Correctional Center.
Abstract
The professor who taught both groups of students facilitated the discussion which covered a wide range of topics, some related to imprisonment, and others dealing with life. Although both groups had entered the encounter session with preconceived fears and ideas about the other group, those fears and anxieties had changed to feelings of trust and understanding by the end of the meeting. The student inmates felt the encounter had helped them to prepare for release or to cope with the remainder of their imprisonment. The campus students underwent a major attitudinal change toward inmates, by realizing that all inmates are not dangerous, but rather each is an individual with the same thoughts, needs, and feelings as themselves. All the participants found the experience to be a worthwhile learning device that should be replicated at other institutions.