“The More Connection the Better”: Bounded Relationships and Uneasy Alignments in Prison Education

Abstract

This Article examines Inside-Out pedagogy with qualitative data from an evaluation at a women’s prison as a case study of uneasy alignments between opposing systems. The Article analyzes student data from pre and post course surveys and follow up interviews scheduled within the year after the course was completed. Hearing from people most impacted by how emotionality and rationality are circumscribed within the prison classroom leads to recognizing the conditional connections formed in Inside-Out classes as “bounded relationships.” This concept emphasizes the physical boundaries and interpersonal regulations associated with incarceration and situates their impact on education in prison within the broader context of alienation and constrained autonomy imposed by the criminal legal system. This boundedness shapes experiences in the class and afterwards and may undermine the radical intentions of Inside-Out, with lessons for other attempts at bridging or aligning disparate approaches or systems.