Inside-Out Coaches Awarded Prestigious Fellowship
Summer 2024
Congratulations to two of Inside-Out’s formerly incarcerated coaches / dialogue partners, Kenny Butler and Joe Schwartz, who have been chosen to do a summer-long fellowship through a partnership between the Samuel Centre on Social Connectedness and The Inside-Out Center. The focus of this study is on the impact OF and ON formerly incarcerated men and women who are involved in the Inside-Out trainings and workshops. Results of their combined study, based on interviews with training participants and training coaches, will be available this coming Fall, when they will present their findings at a Zoom session for the Inside-Out network.
Joe Schwartz (he/him) is a teaching assistant and training coach with Temple University’s Inside-Out Training Institute, as well as a reentry strategist with the Liberation Foundation Reentry program. After serving 15 years in prison, he dedicates himself to initiatives focused on criminal justice reform and educational opportunities.
Joe’s conviction is that all people, regardless of circumstance, deserve access to the transformative power of education. He has recently joined the steering committee of the Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education in Prison, where he works to galvanize the collective efforts of colleges and universities to implement educational programs within carceral institutions.
Kenneth Butler (he/him) holds a BA in Organizational Studies from Pitzer College and is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration at Cal Poly Pomona. He’s deeply engaged in social justice work as a coach/dialogue partner for The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program and a volunteer facilitator for the Prison Education Project.
Additionally, he mentors participants in the Reintegration Academy program. Kenny’s passion lies in following the footsteps of his mentors to advance social justice. Recently, he undertook a Fulbright fellowship in Uganda to research the country’s recidivism rate.
Joe Schwartz and Kenneth Butler
