What is it REALLY LIKE inside a Correctional Facility?
Inside Out classes at LSC will be offered as follows:
- Fall semester of an odd-numbered year: Soc 1114 Criminal Justice in Society
- Spring semester of an even-numbered year: Soc 1130: Juvenile Delinquency
- Fall semester of an even-numbered year: Soc 1125: Social Deviance
- Spring semester of an odd-numbered year: Soc 1170: Drugs and Society
The Lake Superior College Department of Sociology offers YOU the chance to spend time inside a correctional facility, and earn three credits while you do it.
The Inside-Out Prison Exchange program is unlike any class you have ever had.
The semester-long course meets inside a correctional facility. The Federal Prison Camp in Duluth is about 6 miles northwest of Lake Superior College. The class combines LSC students with an equal number of incarcerated men. Both LSC and incarcerated students have the same syllabus and academic requirements. The course is part of the national Inside-Out Prison Exchange program founded at Temple University in 1997. The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program was based on the simple hypothesis that incarcerated men and women and college students might mutually benefit from studying crime, justice, and related social issues together as peers. Participants in that first course, and every subsequent course, have said that Inside-Out was not simply another learning experience – it transformed the way they viewed themselves and the world. Since then, thousands of college students—from all over the U.S. and the world—have participated in Inside-Out classes.
The course Criminal Justice and Society focuses on current social justice topics like: why people commit crime; what prisons are for; punishment; rehabilitation; victims and victimization; restorative justice; myths and realities of prison life; and analysis of the American Justice system. The Juvenile Delinquency class looks at society’s definition of childhood, theories for why kids might engage in rule-breaking behavior, and an overview of the juvenile justice system. The Drugs & Society course examines substances and their use through time, along with how they are regarded and reacted to by society. The Social Deviance class looks at factors that form our definition of what it means to be “deviant,” how those definitions change through time and based on circumstances, and social reactions to deviance, all while learning about examples such as biker gangs, doctors who commit Medicare fraud, and music groupies.
All students age 17 or older are encouraged to apply.
To be considered for the course, students are required to fill out an application; you will be contacted to set up an interview upon receipt of your application. Class size is very limited, so if you have questions or want to be considered for this exciting class, email Theresa Leopold.
