UGA Inside-Out Program Tears Down Barriers
June 2, 2024
Throughout the semester, the group of students focused on three topics in criminal justice: accountability—understanding the impact of one’s actions and the steps to follow to heal and move forward; desistance—what is needed to break from the cycle of criminality and achieve a stable environment; and prisons and punishment—reflecting on prison statistics, realities, and biases in the United States.
With different backgrounds and life experiences, the students shared their perspectives and perceptions, exchanged ideas, and worked together to reflect on issues and envision a more just future.
To encapsulate all the topics the students read and discussed, each semester, the class works together to complete a project. This year, they chose to develop a yearbook. Inside the yearbook, they included a summary of the semester, their written reflections on the topics they discussed, and a written letter in favor of the ban-the-box initiative that would remove the box inquiring about criminal backgrounds from college and job applications. The yearbook also has several pages showing how the class grew as a community, including the classic superlatives, funny questions and polls, and a playlist of all the students’ favorite songs.
This yearbook also includes a list of helpful resources for those released from jail to access. The yearbook is available to download from the Inside-Out course’s website thanks to trained instructor Sarah Shannon, PhD, and physical copies will remain at the jail for others to read.
UGA Inside-Out Class
