MEDIA, Pa. — Sixteen students, eight from Penn State Brandywine and eight incarcerated at a nearby county jail, overcame their apprehensions, challenged their ideas about the criminal justice system and studied public speaking during a semester-long course offered through the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. The students met each Tuesday evening during the fall semester at Delaware County’s George W. Hill Correctional Facility, with a closing ceremony and celebration held on Nov. 28.
The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is an educational program that facilitates dialogue across differences, bringing together campus-based, or “outside,” students with incarcerated, or “inside,” students. The George W. Hill Correctional Facility houses people who either have been accused of a crime and are awaiting a court hearing or have received a sentence of less than two years, typically for a relatively minor, non-violent offense.
Brandywine Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences Angela Putman taught the course, "CAS 100A: Effective Speech." She had contacted Warden Laura K. Williams and Kelly Shaw, reentry and program administrator, last year about offering the course at the correctional facility. After its successful completion in fall 2022, the course was administered for a second time in the fall 2023 semester.
At the closing ceremony, several students shared examples of speeches they had prepared for class and their reflections on the program, and each student was awarded a certificate. Among the guests attending the ceremony were Brandywine’s Chancellor Marilyn J. Wells, Director of Development Patton Vo and Interim Director of Academic Affairs Jen Nesbitt, as well as Williams and Shaw.