The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, created in 1997, is an educational model that brings together on-campus students and incarcerated students to learn together in a prison, jail, or other correctional setting.
For over 20 years, WVU faculty have used this transformative pedagogical approach to facilitate increased understanding, empathy, and collaboration amongst students.
Inside-Out courses are highly transformative for both on-campus and incarcerated students. WVU student Dakota Swiger participated in an Inside-Out drama class at SCI Greene in 2022 and was named a Mountaineer of Distinction in 2024. In a WVU Today article reporting on the award, Dakota noted her experience in the Inside-Out drama course as one of her most rewarding experiences as a student, sharing that she was inspired to declare an English minor following the class.
“I am amazed at the level of knowledge the outside students possess at such young ages. My favorite part is walking into the room greeted by a bunch of smiles. It’s witnessing the collective growth among my peers. It’s all of it.”
–Boymah, HEPI Student
Inside-Out has grown into an international network of trained faculty, students, alumni, think tanks, higher education and correctional administrators, and other stakeholders actively engaged with, and deeply committed to, social justice issues. Learn more about the Inside-Out Prison Exchange and offerings at WVU below.
Learn More at the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Website
WVU Inside-Out Academic Course SOCA 433
The core of the Inside-Out Program is a semester-long academic course (SOCA 433), meeting once a week, through which 15 to 18 “outside” students and the same number of “inside” students attend class together inside a prison. All participants read a variety of texts and write several papers. During class sessions, students discuss issues in small and large groups. In the final month of the class, students work together on a class project.
Inside-Out is an opportunity for college students to go behind the walls to reconsider what they have come to know about crime and justice. At the same time, it is also an opportunity for those inside prison to place their life experiences in a larger framework. Inside-Out creates a paradigm shift for participants, encouraging transformation and change agency in individuals and, in so doing, serves as an engine for social change.