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Incarcerated in the classroom

Prison Writing Workshop educates prisoners and provides a medium for expression

by Colin Reynolds

Last year in Quad Dining Hall, Emily Guenther '08 hurriedly finished her lunch, rose and announced that she was going to prison. She had not committed a crime, not an inflammatory act of civil disobedience, as her friends had thought. As a member of the Prison Writing Workshop, she taught a group of prisoners, haunted by their experiences behind bars and their unrealized hopes on the outside.

"They have nothing but time," Katherine Rochester '06 said of her students, inmates at the male Newton Correctional Facility. "They're thinking constantly, and everyone's a philosopher."

Grinnell students who participate in "Prison Writers" teach classes to inmates at the prison as part of Grinnell's Prison Writing Workshop. Mostly females, the group teaches a class of around eight to 12 prisoners every weekday.

Howard Burkle, Philosophy and Religious Studies, started the program several years ago. Initially, Laura Matter '05 and Ursula Hill '05 became involved through the Chaplain's office, and Prison Writers became an official student group during the 2003-2004 academic year. According to Rochester, the writing class was originally designed as a "restorative justice" program for both perpetrators of crimes and their victims. It was meant to be a cathartic experience for both parties. Now, student volunteers take a different approach. "These are not therapy sessions," said Rochester. "They're more about coming in from the outside and giving these guys a chance at creative expression."

Emily Guenther '08 teaches a fiction-writing course. "There's a class component for about an hour and a half each week, and I sometimes do individual conferences as well," she said. Though the program began simply as a writing class under Burkle, the title "Prison Writers" is now rather deceptive. "There are other classes, too, like Philosophy and Art," said Guenther. "Last semester there were seven altogether." According to Rochester, there are plans this semester for a theater class complete with the production of a play.

Many student teachers agree that the inmates were eager to learn. "I think I have the most enthusiastic group of students I could have in any setting," said Guenther.

Katie Jares '07 agreed. "Prison is a habit that gets under your skin," she said. "Once you start working there, it's hard to work anywhere else."

"In the writing classes, you really get to know the guys," said Rochester. "They're writing about the kids they haven't seen, about the meaning of life and their own lives in particular. One of the writings I remember most clearly was a piece about solitary confinement." A man was put in solitary for sharing Pepto Bismol with a cellmate, thereby violating the "no sharing of medicines" rule.

"He described the red suit that he had to wear, down to the red underwear, to the fluorescent light above his bunk that never went off," she said. "[At orientation], they stress the idea that all these men are cons and that they'll try to con you 100 percent of the time. I think that's bullshit. I think the guys that are in my classes are there for some human connection and because they're very interested in writing and very interested in sharing their work."

The classes offered through Prison Writers are completely voluntary. According to Guenther, inmates can only sign up for classes if they've been on good behavior for a long period of time and have gone through several courses aimed at reform.

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