A Taste of Prison – The Waltonian

Over the course of this past semester, I had the opportunity to take ANTH-101: Cultural Anthropology. However, this course was not taught on the St. Davids campus, but took place at SCI-Chester, a medium security prison that is also home to Eastern University’s Prison Education Program (PEP), where I also worked as a student employee. more than two and a half years. PEP provides a transformative educational experience to incarcerated students seeking an Associate of the Arts (AA) degree in the Liberal Arts, which consists of approximately 80 credits and four semesters. As a student worker, colleague and friend Ellie Greer and I were offered the opportunity by Dr. Fantuzzo, the director of PEP.

When we discussed Greer and I’s presence within the Anthropology course within SCI-Chester, the vision was that we would be the first students at Eastern to take a PEP course and essentially have more students attend the PEP classes as an integrated experience after evaluating Ellie and I’s lessons. experience.

“PEP looks forward to offering ‘integrated classes’ at SCI-Chester next academic year. This means courses where some Eastern students are incarcerated and others live on the main campus. Téa and Ellie took Professor Meneses’ course at SCI-Chester this semester and were pioneers in the field of “integrated courses.” We suspect that many students will follow their example and integrated courses will help inform Eastern’s commitment to faith, reason and justice,” said Dr. Fantuzzo.

Before starting the prison anthropology course, my main concern was the lack of available resources. Due to Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) protocol, electronics such as cell phones or laptops are not allowed into the facility. Not only that, but pencils, paper, notebooks and textbooks are also not allowed to be brought in. Basically, for security reasons, nothing is allowed to be brought into the facility except your person and a state-issued ID or driver’s license. Instead, Greer and I each have a set of textbooks, a notebook, a syllabus, and a pen that we keep in a cupboard in our designated classroom. When she asked Greer what she struggled with most when first adjusting to the classroom in prison culture, she agreed that the hardest part of adjusting to SCI-Chester was not being able to bring anything in, unlike a typical undergraduate class.

Despite limited resources, Greer and I have become immersed in prison culture, which is extremely important when taking a cultural anthropology course.

“I feel that the unique classroom environment that SCI-Chester offers creates an immersive environment for a different culture that you would not be able to experience in a traditional classroom,” Greer said.

Since this is the first time traditional students have participated in a PEP class, professors weren’t really sure how both groups of students would interact. Dr. However, Meneses, professor of ANTH-100, had very positive comments when asked how all the students, both traditional and PEP students, interacted with each other.

“It was a very good experience to have EU students on campus participate in the PEP class. The students on campus were warmly welcomed by the SCI Chester students and they blended nicely into the classroom environment. There was really no distinction between them as students. It was one lesson and it went well!” said Dr. Meneses.

Another unique experience when taking this particular course was that the TA course was taught by David Garlock, an Eastern alum who also happens to be a formerly incarcerated individual turned criminal justice reform advocate.

“I was drawn to the East because of its motto ‘Faith, Reason and Justice,’ along with the fact that the faith of the East is demonstrated through the prison, street and other ministries. This is now being demonstrated by having students from the main campus take classes with their fellow students at SCI-Chester. This is what Jesus would do! Matthew 25:34-40 is fulfilled with this partnership. I can’t wait to see more students have this opportunity to meet their classmates on the inside,” said Garlock.

The ones who seemed to get the most out of our presence in the classroom were the students themselves. When asked, one student said, “Your presence in the classroom gives us a sense of normalcy and humanization that we desperately need.” Another student also commented on our integrated teaching experience, saying, “You motivate me to do better and better. We’re not around a lot of young people and that’s inspiring.”

Overall, I enjoyed my experience taking ANTH-101 at SCI-Chester, and it has had a tremendous impact on my academic career. If you are looking for a course for next semester, consider taking a course at PEP!

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