Inside Out Course

The Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Central Florida (UCF) is pleased to offer students the opportunity to enroll in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is unlike any other class offered at UCF. It is unique because the student body will be comprised of 15 outside (i.e., UCF) students and 15 inside (i.e., incarcerated) students. This course is part of an international prison educational exchange program founded by Lori Pompa at Temple University in 1997. The program has since grown to include over 1,000 trained instructors from nearly every U.S. state and 9 countries reaching over 38,000 students. The Fall 2021 Inside-Out class taught at UCF will be the first time the course is offered at universities within the state of Florida.

This course involves an innovative pedagogical approach focused on facilitating dialogue across different social contexts. Not only do the students live in very different environments (i.e., free world vs. prison), but the students often come from various backgrounds and have diverse lived experiences. Thus, a focus of this class is to engage students in the learning process, help students find their voice, expose underrepresented populations to higher education, and most importantly, challenge students’ perceptions of social issues surrounding families, power, privilege, inequality, and criminal behavior.

Classes will be held at the Central Florida Reception Center (CFRC) located near Orlando, FL, and this course is also part of the Florida Prison Education Project (FPEP).

Find upcoming course information here. To be considered for the courses, students are required to fill out an application. Students who make the short list of applicants will then complete a brief interview with the course facilitators, who are responsible for selecting the final roster of students for the course. Class size is limited to 15 applicants. Also, students are not eligible to enroll in courses they have already completed.