UNC Asheville’s Prison Education Program Forges Ahead through COVID-19

Bulldogs Wherever We Are

By UNC Asheville

June 26^th, 2020

The worldwide COVID-19 outbreak sent UNC Asheville classes into an online format in the spring of 2020; professors held lectures over Zoom, connected with students via email, and directed discussions on Moodle message boards. But for faculty teaching in UNC Asheville’s Prison Education Program at Avery Mitchell Correctional Institution (AMCI), online learning was not an option—a limitation that challenged the program’s students, professors and administrators as they switched from in-person classes to a correspondence model class. But that challenge did not stop them.

A typical class for the students in the Prison Education Program, which is funded by a three-year $195,000 grant from the Laughing Gull Foundation, in many ways is not so different from a class you might find on campus. The program, which started in the spring semester of 2019, offers students credit-bearing courses in UNC Asheville’s liberal arts curriculum. This semester the students in the program took Humanities 214 and Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. A class might kick off with a quiz about the week’s readings, and then move into a PowerPoint presentation and group discussion. And as you would expect in any liberal arts learning environment, the discussions were always engaging.

“One thing I was struck by was how, by 8 p.m. and after three hours of class, there was almost always plenty of steam left in the room to keep talking,” said Will Revere, assistant professor of English, who led the Humanities 214 class. “I felt energized after class rather than beat.”

“I was never ready to leave because the students always filled our time with so much curiosity, humility, and excitement,” said Shawn Mendez, assistant professor of sociology and instructor of the women, gender and sexuality studies class.

Of course, classes inside AMCI differ in many ways from the average classroom experience. Faculty and UNC Asheville staff members who volunteer as study hall instructors commute about an hour from UNC Asheville to the prison, and go through a security check at the gatehouse before going to AMCI’s education wing. A guard at the front desk calls the students to class over the loudspeaker, and can provide the professor with a key to the classroom desk and the cable for the printer in exchange for the professor’s car keys and driver’s license. And faculty members must bring any materials as either print outs or on a thumb drive, as there is no internet access in the classroom. This created a real challenge when the COVID-19 pandemic forced UNC Asheville classes to transition to remote instruction.

Regine Criser, assistant professor of languages and literatures and director of UNC Asheville’s Prison Education Program

“Moving classes to remote instruction had to work very differently,” said Regine Criser, assistant professor of languages and literatures and director of UNC Asheville’s Prison Education Program. “Luckily our partners at AMCI were eager to find a solution with us and instructors were able to mail in material to the program coordinators on site, who then shared the materials with students and emailed back student work.”

With the help of AMCI staff members James Vaughn and Samantha Greene, the classes switched to a correspondence model, and continued through the rest of the spring semester through letters.

“I would write a longish letter every Monday to start the week, providing detailed guidance for course readings and assignments and highlighting big questions and ideas for the week,” Revere said. “Students would send assignments back to me via staff at the prison, and write their own letters with questions or housekeeping business.

“They were really gracious in their letters, sending warm wishes for me and my family during the COVID quarantine,” Revere continued. “I also incorporated some new materials around health crises in history such as the Black Death, and how people conceived of these and responded.”

Will Revere, assistant professor of English

When the students at AMCI complete the program, which includes UNC Asheville’s Liberal Arts Core requirements, they’ll be prepared for seamless transition into any institution of higher learning upon their release. They’ve completed classes in the humanities, economics, management, and Spanish, among others. It was important to the students, faculty, and administrators that the pandemic didn’t derail the students’ progress.

“We really wanted to honor the work that the students had already put into the courses and make sure that they can earn their credits,” Criser said. “But we also wanted to provide some kind of stability within a time of great uncertainty. Keeping students engaged with the course material was a good way to keep them connected to our UNCA community and to provide some structure and connection, even though we cannot be in the same space with them right now.”

Though switching from in-person classes to the correspondence model was challenging, Mendez and Revere said the students responded admirably, even through the pressure of final projects.

“It has been rewarding to see the students persevere, and to see the ways that AMCI staff has supported our program,” Mendez said.

“A big challenge but also a joy was corresponding with students individually about their research projects, and tracking down research sources tailored to these projects, since students don't have internet access,” Revere said. “Their final projects combined creative work with research and analysis, and involved writing or making their own adaptation of a literary or artistic form we'd encountered in the course, and then writing a short analytic research essay about their piece.”

Some students wrote an allegorical dialogue of debate and consolation, which was modeled on Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, a work written while its author was in prison awaiting death for alleged treason. Other students created their own kolams, a southeast Asian form of visual art done around thresholds in homes and temples. Others wrote spiritual autobiographies, following examples like those of the late medieval pilgrim and professional woman Margery Kempe and the Islamic philosopher Al-Ghazali, or a family narrative as if a griot for his family traditions, following the model of the Mali epic story Sundiata.

Shawn Mendez, assistant professor of sociology

“I was encouraged and in a way humbled and sobered about the significance of what we do in higher education,” Revere said of his experience teaching in the Prison Education Program in the spring 2020 semester. “On the first day of class we discussed two poems that raised questions for us about the similarities and differences between being a ‘tourist’ and a ‘pilgrim.’ One student pointed out to me (smack!) that I was more like a tourist than a pilgrim in being there teaching in prison -- I got to go home after a few hours, they didn't. That comment and the conversations I had this semester have kept me thinking about the importance of trust, relationship, and presence -- whatever those things look like -- to any kind of learning.”

“Our program is bringing the liberal arts to students who are currently incarcerated and for me it brings into clear focus the power of education to liberate,” Criser said. “We are a comprehensive prison education program, which means that we are not only offering credit-bearing classes on the inside but that we are working with partners in our community, particularly the Buncombe County Re-Entry Council, to provide pathways for our students upon their release. This program not only impacts our students, but their families and communities, and our campus community.”

Although Criser isn’t certain yet if classes at AMCI will be in-person or not in the fall 2020 semester, she hopes that the students’ experience this semester has grown their self-confidence and resilience, and their sense of community.

“Our students give me hope,” Criser said. “Their dedication to keep working through all challenges and uncertainties is inspiring and keeps me focused.”

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