Abstract
Despite evidence that educational programs have important rehabilitative effects on inmates, such programs have suffered significant reductions. Remaining programs increasingly rely on volunteers since prison administrators typically require that inmates be given the opportunity to participate in post-secondary education. This autoethnographic study utilizes a “magnified moment” method to elucidate structural and cultural contexts that shape the experience of establishing college courses at a women’s prison in the USA. Through focusing on these magnified moments, I take the reader on a journey to answer larger theoretical questions of which volunteers attain access into prison and what are the implications of who does get in?
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Notes
- 1.
“The Federal Pell Grant Program provides need-based grants to low-income undergraduate and certain post-baccalaureate students to promote access to post-secondary education. Students may use their grants at any one of approximately 5400 participating post-secondary institutions. Grant amounts are dependent on: the student’s expected family contribution (EFC) (see below); the cost of attendance (as determined by the institution); the student’s enrollment status (full-time or part-time); and whether the student attends for a full academic year or less” (http://www2.ed.gov/programs/fpg/index.html).
- 2.
- 3.
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- 5.
- 6.
At the date of this publication, President Obama has introduced legislation that would provide a limited number of prisoners the opportunity to use Pell Grants at a select group of colleges and universities (Anderson, 2015).
- 7.
Westminster College (Pennsylvania) is a small, liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1500 students. The author of this study initiated Westminster’s involvement at the women’s prison. The author also had to convince Westminster administration of the importance of offering higher education courses at a reduced cost to incarcerated women so the resistance to programming was not necessarily one-sided.
- 8.
I purposely choose to not name the prison or the state it is located within to protect the confidentiality of the individuals in my study.
- 9.
Specifically “to acquire knowledge of self, society, human cultures, the natural world, and human relationships to God” and “to demonstrate moral and ethical commitments to neighbor, society, and the natural world” (https://www.westminster.edu/about/mission.cfm).
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Robison, K.M. (2016). “Volunteers Welcome, That Is, Some Volunteers”: Experiences Teaching College Courses at a Women’s Prison. In: Abrams, L., Hughes, E., Inderbitzin, M., Meek, R. (eds) The Voluntary Sector in Prisons. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54215-1_11
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