The liberal arts are techniques for freedom.
Teaching a class, “The 2016 Presidential Election: The Fight to Vote in American History,” in the JCI Scholars Program presented me with a unique opportunity to view the recent election through the eyes of a forgotten voting block – the incarcerated. The experience was a rich and rewarding one. Students were well prepared for class […]
The Department of Education has selected us to participate in the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program! I wrote about this a bit before last year here and here. There will be much more news in the days and weeks ahead. We have heard that our partnership with the University of Baltimore is one of four such […]
On Tuesday, my class “The Inside Out Prison Exchange Program: Criminal Justice Issues”, met for the final time at Jessup Correctional Institution. The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is a national program developed by Temple University in 1997, and offered in prisons across the country and internationally. This was my third year offering Inside-Out at JCI. […]
Guest Post by David Houk (Tree) The class on architecture was interesting because I’ve worked construction almost my whole life, and I have experience working with terracotta tile black (clay). I can’t believe it takes almost eleven years to learn this career. But I guess it really does, to learn all that it takes to […]
Today, JCI Scholar Vincent Greco and I attended the memorial service for Doug Arey. Here are some things that come into my mind when I think about Doug: His loud, irrepressible, unmistakable laugh. His inability to call me anything but “Professor Brottman,” even when all the other men call me by my first name, even […]
I had some very sad news while traveling on Monday, March 28th. I learned that one of my favorite students in recent memory – Douglas Scott Arey (September 26, 1948 – March 27, 2016), a 67-year-old inmate at Jessup who served 43 years of a life sentence – died the previous day. Doug took my […]
A memorial service for Douglas Scott Arey (September 26, 1948 – March 27, 2016) will be held on April 7, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. Here is the location: St. Barnabas’ Episcopal Church 5203 St. Barnabas Road Temple Hills, MD 20748
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 […]
March 22, 2016 My kids I wonder where your mind are I hope missing daddy from afar My kids I know I made promises in the past That’s before I get my GED and now attending a college class My kids I say to you that I are all grown up So you can stop […]
Guest post by Warren “Ren” Hynson All last week I read the handout “The School,” and I was confused. I felt the story was all over the place and I was lost. As I walked around the prison compound, everyone I saw from our class asked, “Did you read ‘The School’?” They all followed that […]
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 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 […]
We finished the class by watching the 1954 animated version of Animal Farm, directed by Joy Batchelor and John Halas, which is an interesting movie in its own right, but a very watered down version of Orwell’s allegory. I’m sure none of the men were surprised that the ending of Animal Farm was depressing, but […]
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 […]
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 […]
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
Photographer Mark Hejnar attended my Advanced Literature class at the end of May and took some great photos of the students. Not all the men can be shown due to an arcane policy regarding victim notification rights, but here are some photos that have passed the censorship rules. Most of these men have been […]
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Monday that the White House will take advantage of a loophole in the 1994 law that banned incarcerated Americans from using Pell Grants to pay for college, “developing experimental sites that will make Pell grants available” to prisoners. This move, which has long had the backing of philanthropists and […]
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 […]
Will Millennials Embrace Prison Reform?
A crucial resource launched today: The Marshall Project, “a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization covering America’s criminal justice system.” Check it out at www.themarshallproject.org.
Warren Hynson, who works under the name Renaissanz Rzen, began painting after being inspired by the work of his fellow prison artists. His vibrant acrylic portraits of inmates help tell the story of his own struggle and the struggles of his comrades in exile. The exhibition took place in the Rosenberg Gallery, 2nd Floor of […]
This show will feature the work of artist Warren Hynson, who works under the name Renaissanz Rzen. Hynson has spent more than 20 years in prison and is currently incarcerated in the Jessup Correctional Institution. He began painting after being inspired by the work of his fellow prison artists. His vibrant acrylic portraits of inmates […]
Friday June 13, 2014: My name is Shelby Norton and I am an Interdisciplinary Sculpture student at MICA. During my freshman year I took a class called Community Arts Partnership (CAP): Finding Baltimore. An advocate for restorative justice came to talk to the class with a psychologist from the city jail. He liked what we […]
There’s always something a little bit sad about the last class of the semester. I’m leaving for a relaxing summer vacation, and the men are… stuck exactly where they always are. In a normal academic environment, the summer is a time for renewal and regeneration – metamorphosis, in fact – but at JCI all seasons […]
This week, we discussed Part II of Kafka’s “Metamorphosis.” For their homework, I’d asked the men to imagine themselves as Gregor’s sister Grete, and to write a letter to their best friend, giving an account of what’s been happening in their life. Here’s part of Mr. Gross’s response: “Guten Tag Ava. My family is experiencing […]
interesting article from The Atlantic. A Supreme Court decision 40 years ago this summer allowed states to block access to specific prisoners. What does that mean for freedom of the press and our justice system? by Adrian Shirk, Jul 15 2014, 10:03 AM Read the article here.
This week we started discussing Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” – the men had read part I by themselves over the preceding week. So far there’s a general consensus that the story is weird but intriguing. Here’s Mr. Hardy’s response: “Wow! I can only imagine what it would be like to awake and be someone you were not […]
This week we started discussing Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” – the men had read part I by themselves over the preceding week. So far there’s a general consensus that the story is weird but intriguing. Here’s Mr. Hardy’s response: “Wow! I can only imagine what it would be like to awake and be someone you were not […]
The UK Ministry of Justice says prisoners do not have an automatic right to have books. They need incentives as part of their rehabilitation and should earn privileges, including the right to buy books from the outside the prison. Preventing parcels of books from being sent in gives prison authorities more control. “Good behavior is […]
Today we discussed Poe’s dark tale, “A Cask of Amontillado.” The men were especially interested in the idea of being walled-up (imprisoned) as a sadistic form of punishment totally out of proportion to the original (possibly imaginary) “insult.” Of the protagonist Montresor, Mr. Fitzgerald wrote, “he reminds me of some DC and Baltimore killers a […]
Mr. C Doyle on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart”: I liked the story, wish it has been longer. I also liked Poe, and his style of insanity. As soon as I read the line, “I loved the old man,” I knew he was going to die! It was strange how I seemed to […]
Our discussion of Jekyll and Hyde turned out to be very thoughtful, even though a couple of the men were absent (ie. in lockup). This is unfortunate, because when things keep changing, when a routine is constantly broken, it can seem unreal, and anyone who experiences it that way is going to feel isolated from […]
I’m a little behind on my postings… but here’s an update on the men’s first encounter with Stevenson’s The Strange Tale of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. I warned the men that this short novella would be very different from the story we all think we know—that of the upright Victorian gentleman and his evil […]
Our talented artist Renaissanz Rzen will be having a one-man show at the Rosenberg Gallery, Brown Center, Maryland Institute College of Art in the first week of October 2014. Stay tuned for more details! “Now and Later,” 24″x30″ acrylic on canvas.
Words cannot adequately illustrate the positive energy coming from Jessup last night…but I will try to describe yesterday’s event. At 5:20PM I left the University of Baltimore (UB) to drive to my weekly Criminal Justice class at Jessup Correctional Institution (JCI). For the past few weeks 11 of my UB students attended joint classes with 24 […]
Since February our class of 25 students has gathered weekly to discuss questions around “what is crime?”; “why do people engage in crime?”; and “how might we prevent crime?” Students have responded to these questions through a series of essays and in-class discussion. Our last three class sessions included a group of 11 University of […]
This semester we decided to do something a bit differently. First, we decided to experiment with team teaching; it’s difficult to team teach in a university because labor requirements are usually expressed in terms of teaching load, and so there’s no good way to give credit for teaching half a class. Plus, my co-instructor, Daniel […]
As you may have noticed, the website hasn’t been updated in a while. But, that doesn’t mean that the program has not been active – quite the opposite! We taught a number of classes in the Fall of 2013, and we’re now gearing up for Spring 2014. You can see what we’re doing over at […]