The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program

Mark your calendars for Inside-Out's Fall Zoom sessions! 📣 🗓️
These discussions are free and open to all members of the Inside-Out community.

Get the link for the October 15th session here, and stay tuned for more: https://mailchi.mp/4ae94b840b52/oct-15-zoom-trans-experiences-in-carceral-education

Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 5:00pm EST
Trans Experiences in Carceral Education
Instructor Lawrence Koval (he/they) will share his experience teaching as a trans man in a medium/maximum security men's facility. This includes managing interactions with staff to strategies he's found effective when facilitating conversations based in solidarity, especially across different life experiences.

Monday, October 26, 2026, at 4:00pm EST
Cultivating Community to Deepen Meaning
Join Inside-Out Instructor Jen Kouba, M.A. and former outside students, Aarya Balaji and Carys Lovell, for a discussion on their teaching and learning experiences inside Cook County Jail and other carceral settings.

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 at 4:00pm EST
Zenith Momentum Group (A Federal Prison Inside-Out Think Tank)
Hear from current Inside students about how a unique partnership, deeply rooted in Inside-Out and restorative philosophy, is bearing fruit in northern Minnesota.

Help us reach our goal! 📣 Your donation supports the training, mentorship, and resources that turn passionate individuals into Inside-Out coaches and trained instructors. From workshops to classrooms, their work ripples outward, creating lasting change. Consider making a donation today to help us expand this work!

Donate: https://givebutter.com/insideoutcenter

We’re so excited to announce that The Inside-Out Center online store is now open! 🎉 Visit the link in our bio to order today.

Whether you’re an instructor looking for shirts for your students, an Inside-Out alumni or coach wanting to represent the community, or just looking for some Inside-Out gear of your own, you can now shop online and show your Inside-Out pride wherever you go!

Instructors: We’re also offering a discount on bulk t-shirt orders, making it easier to get Inside-Out shirts for your students.

And this is just the beginning—we’ll be adding more Inside-Out merchandise to the store, so be sure to check back! Thanks for being part of the Inside-Out community and for carrying this work with you, wherever you are.

Warmly,
Miranda

THE INSIDE-OUT CENTER
International HQ of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program
and Alternative Dialogue & Exchange Initiatives

Join us on October 5th for a conversation about Teaching Journalism in Prison 📝

https://mailchi.mp/48a60df84caf/oct-5-zoom-session

This discussion is free and open to all within our Inside-Out community - trained instructors, students, and supporters. Please join us if you are interested in the topic!

Why teach journalism in prison? What are the challenges and limitations of reporting from the inside (including censorship)? Can the inside/out approach mitigate some of these limitations?

This session will discuss the current landscape of prison journalism, the opportunities and challenges of teaching and creating journalism inside, and the potential benefits of teaching journalism skills.

Inside Out with Reiko Hillyer this week on Prison Pipeline

This Monday on Prison Pipeline, we’ll be talking with Reiko Hillyer, a professor of history at Lewis & Clark College, about the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program. Hillyer has taught an Inside Out class called Crime and Punishment in the United States at Columbia River Correctional Institution in North Portland since 2012. The program brings together undergraduate students from Lewis & Clark with incarcerated students to take college-level classes together inside the prison.

Hillyer explains how Inside Out is designed to break down stereotypes and fears between incarcerated and non-incarcerated people. Fifteen Lewis & Clark students and fifteen inside students study together, bringing both academic knowledge and lived experience to the classroom. Hillyer says that human connection can develop almost immediately, and describes how students who initially fear being judged can discover how much they have in common with one another.

We’ll also talk about how the experience changes the way students understand incarceration. Hillyer describes incarcerated students as often being extremely well-read, with extensive knowledge and personal wisdom that they can bring to academic discussions. When the class studies the work of philosopher and historian Michel Foucault, for example, theories about prisons, schools, factories and other institutions take on a very different meaning when students in the room are describing their own experiences of incarceration.

Hillyer also discusses her research into the history of connections between prisons and the outside world. She says there were once more opportunities for incarcerated people to leave prison on furlough, work, speak to community groups and maintain family connections, including conjugal visits. She argues that the increasing isolation of prisons can make the conditions of incarceration invisible to the broader public and can make it easier for fear and distorted ideas about incarcerated people to persist.

And we’ll discuss what happens to a person's relationship with time while they are incarcerated. Hillyer argues that the decline of clemency, parole and educational and other programs can leave people frozen in the public imagination at the moment of their worst act, rather than recognizing that people can grow and change over decades. She contrasts that with the experience of incarcerated people who may spend their time developing skills, earning college degrees, taking accountability, learning and trying to prepare for a future beyond prison.

That conversation with Reiko Hillyer is coming up this Monday on Prison Pipeline. Prison Pipeline airs Monday, September 14, at 6:30 p.m. on KBOO Community Radio, 90.7 FM in the Portland area, and online at kboo.fm. We’ll be talking about Inside Out, prison education, incarceration, isolation, human connection and the possibility of growth and change.

https://kboo.fm/media/135520-inside-out-reiko-hillyer

Mark your calendars! Inside-Out will be hosting its 30th anniversary in 2027 from Friday, October 22nd, in the afternoon to Sunday, October 24th, in the evening at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA - a couple of minutes outside of Philadelphia.

Further information forthcoming - STAY TUNED!

Applications are OPEN for 2027! 📣 Dates for the upcoming Inside-Out Training Institutes are available on our website now: https://insideoutcenter.org/training.html

Note - there is an IN-PERSON opportunity this year - Training #114 in Bucknell, PA. Space is limited, secure your spot today!