The liberal arts are techniques for freedom.
Guest post by Steven Diffendal Prior to attending Dr. Sizer’s class, I did not possess the knowledge as to what distinguished a bandit from an outlaw. Dr. Sizer explained how historical facts differ from those of the folk legends that we have come to know. I came away from Dr. Sizer’s lecture with information such […]
Guest post by Joey McCarthy I would like to say that I felt honored to be able to hear John Peacock’s reading about his life, and how he came to find out his true heritage and roots. Like John Peacock, I am also Irish and Indian mixed. My whole life I was led to believe […]
Guest post by Sig Throughout this semester, I continue to learn about things I know absolutely nothing about. I’m not sure how to feel about this. I guess I’m happy to be learning something, yet sad because I’m 46 years old and still don’t know shit! Much like Ian, I enjoy the act of looking […]
Visit from Dr. Saul Myers. Guest post by Emmanuel Williams Saul came here and shared some pretty well-written stories. I liked him and the stories that he brought with him. In his story of “Alfred,” he used the woman as a commander, one who controlled the situation. He used humor to bring up feminist views […]
Guest post by Michael Whittlesey, in response to guest lecture by Dr. Christine Manganaro The origin of my family genealogy dates back to mid 10th Century England. We were Whittles — the makers of swords and knives. The Whittles that resided upon hill crests, by the English term “ey,” were called “Whittlesey.” The Whittles who […]
Guest post by Donald Gross (R.I.P Douglas Scott Arey) Wow! This particular lecture had to be one of the most, if not the most informative lectures that I have ever had the pleasure of participating in. I would never have guessed in a hundred years that a Q and A during the lecture would be […]
Guest posts, March 15 2016 Michael Whittlesey “Ladies and Gentlemen, friends, fellow citizens. I am not here today to tell you about policy reform – you have heard politician after politician speak about “Change.” I am NOT here today to tell you about change. I am here to talk about abolishment. We need to come […]
Inauguration Speech by Patrick Holmes, in response to guest visit by MICA professor John Barry My Fellow Americans, Today marks the dawn of a new age, a new beginning in which “We the People” will be reborn by an awakening of the Republic’s consciousness to guide our country back to the fundamentals that made our […]
Guest post by Sean Almond in response to class visit by conceptual artist Hugh Pocock I enjoyed the presentation you gave here at JCI. Your work and thoughts really opened my eyes to new concepts of what art is, or could be. I thought that your piece “Volume” was brilliant. To utilize the museum’s own […]
Guest post by Shane Barnett We were honored to have Professor Paul Jaskunas from MICA present to us the first chapter of his novel “Cybelle” this past Tuesday, a story about the coming of age of a rural West Virginia girl battling to overcome mediocrity. In his first chapter, Jaskunas illustrates the struggle of Cybelle […]
On April 30th 2014 students in Andrea Cantora’s Criminal Justice class presented their crime prevention program proposals. Here are the summaries of their proposed programs: Sunshine Acers – An Alternative to Incarceration Program “We have come up with an alternative to incarceration program that we truly believe could work in the future. We call it […]
Animal Farm is starting to get depressing, but I think we all predicted that. And not all the animals are having a hard time. As top pig, Napoleon is in the pink. He’s even going to market and bringing home the bacon. By the end of these two chapters, Napoleon’s regime is definitely worse than […]
The men were not in a good mood today – and understandably so. According to a recent memo, the new DPSCS Secretary has decided that, from December 1, in order to curb the passing of contraband, there will be no more physical contact during prison visits–no touching, no kissing on the mouth, no hugging. What […]
Our second book of the semester is Mike’s choice: Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea. I have to say: Hemingway is the kind of author I think of as another “man’s” writer. Like Steinbeck, it’s all externals, action, physical details. This is another book I’m going to be suffering through. I hope everyone […]
I’m writing this paper while lying in a hospital bed in the Emergency Room at MedStar Memorial Hospital, where I was sent this morning after consulting the doctor about my knee. It’s not an injury, she said, but an infection, which makes sense now I think about it. Let’s hope they don’t have to amputate. […]
This semester, we’re trying something different in Advanced Literature. After putting the men through Conrad, Melville, Poe, Shakespeare, Nabokov, etc., I’ve decided to turn the tables and let them select the books for a change. The book we’ve started with is Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, chosen by Mr. Gross. The book is […]
Two months ago, the Attorney General Lorretta Lynch and the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan came to Jessup to announce a plan to offer Pell Grants to some prisoners again. They gave us until October 2nd to find a university partner to offer credit-bearing programs. I’m very pleased to announce that the University of Baltimore […]
This excellent article by Beth Schartzapfel, Staff Writer at the Marshall Project, refers to the JCI Prison Scholars program, and includes quotes from scholars Josh Miller and Vincent Greco. Obama is Reinstalling Pell Grants for Prisoners
While we here at JCISP recognize that we have a much easier time with the bureaucracy than many of our comrades at other facilities, Dan Steinberg shares this vignette of dealing with obstacles in the Free Will, Intention, and Responsibility class he co-teaches with Bryce Huebner and Rebecca Kukla, to procedures that many teachers take […]
While it may be the middle of July, the JCI Scholars Program has not been as quiet as the website over the summer. Over on our current classes page you can now find links to brief descriptions of the courses being taught this summer, ranging from mindfulness to the environment and many points in between. […]
While it may be the middle of July, the JCI Scholars Program has not been as quiet as the website over the summer. Over on our current classes page you can now find links to brief descriptions of the courses being taught this summer, ranging from mindfulness to the environment and many points in between. […]
It wasn’t too long ago that I was expecting not to teach for the Scholars Program anymore. Things don’t always work out as you expect! But, as of this past Wednesday, I was glad to find myself back in prison. Wait… well, you know what I mean. There have been some changes since I was […]
When I tell people that I volunteer teach at a maximum-security prison, many people nod and tell me “that’s cool,” and some compliment me for being “generous.” But few understand what a deeply gratifying, enriching, and inspiring experience it is. I wasn’t a newcomer to the prison environment. I’d been familiar with several prison visiting […]
This has been a bit of a summer of upheavals for me, personally, so I hope you readers won’t mind a personal note to this post. After two years of having the privilege to work with the teachers and student scholars of the JCI Prison Scholars Program, I’ve finished my last class – at least […]
It was a great pleasure to be in the company of you and the students. It’s refreshing to be able to let your hair down and just get to know people from the outside. But in prison you always have to be prepared for anything, so it was nice to feel like you were free…As […]
Visit the criminal justice class page to see examples of students group projects.
Guest post from a MICA student, Jess Bither, who joined our class on April 16: After everyone introduced themselves, Mikita passed out copies of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde. Previously, they had been reading Macbeth. I was surprised to hear that they would be allowed to read such a bloody play. I […]
So, at the last Violence class, we were talking about both a section on the rise of the Black Panther Party (from Black Against Empire) and on the early inroads of militarization into police forces (from Rise of the Warrior Cop). A few interesting things came out of the conversation. First, what ended up being […]
So, the Violence class. I’ve wanted to teach a course like this for a while, for two reasons. First, it’s a matter of professional interest to me – especially to look at violence as a phenomenon that cross-cuts issues that are often academically stove-piped (e.g., war, psychology of trauma, domestic violence). Second, it’s an issue […]
Rachel Donaldson writes: In class we have been reading Robert Heilbroner’s The Worldly Philosophers and this week we read the chapter on Thorstein Veblen. We began by discussing how Veblen’s economic views intersected with earlier economic theorists like Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, and Marx. Specifically, we examined how Veblen’s view that taking pride in work is a part […]
This is a bit belated, as it relates to last Friday’s class (but I thought I should write it up before I leave to teach this Friday’s class). Josh has already put together a nice write-up of basically what this class is on about. But he’d asked me to write up our particular experience from last week, in […]
Mikita Brottman writes: Today we read the murder scene in “Macbeth,” and I was surprised how focused the men were. Each of them was following the text closely; some of them were even running their fingers along the lines and mouthing the words to themselves silently as the readers spoke their parts. The room was […]
Mikita Brottman writes: In Advanced Literature (Tuesday 2-4pm) we watched Acts IV and V of Polanski’s adaptation of “Macbeth”. When watching the first three acts a week earlier, I’d been surprised the men had found the movie rather dull and slow. This may have been due to the fact that we were watching on a […]