As teachers, we hope our work with students will help them contemplate the issues we face as a society, learn to think critically, and act deliberately and ethically. We hope they will challenge the status quo and strive to make meaningful changes. But is it enough? That’s what I ask myself as I witness friends and family members suffer from mental health crises or poverty and end up in jail rather than getting the help they need. Or when I see the news reports of white-collar criminals getting off while petty drug offenders are convicted and sentenced. Each year, I am reminded of these thoughts as I read Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King and If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin with my Fiction into Film class. Through these novels, we contemplate the realities of the justice system and, in the words of Stephen King, examine the “two-pronged spit” of hope. Red says, “Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It’s got no use on the inside.” But Andy reminds us that “hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

It is with that hope that I keep teaching, keep pushing my students, and keep asking the tough questions. I challenge them to look at the stories and statistics and make their own discoveries and conclusions. It is with that hope that, as BLTN Change Fellows, Meriwether Joyner and I decided to collaborate on a prison reform unit centered around If Beale Street Could Talk. Meriwether teaches at the Denver School of Science and Technology in Denver, CO, and I teach at Proctor Academy in Andover, NH.

We were excited to have our students connect and talk about their varied views on the criminal justice system and look into how prison systems differed among states. As a teacher at a boarding school with students from various states and countries, I decided to have my class do a research project on the prison system in their home state or country and then present a reform proposal based on that research. Since Meriwether was adding this text to her AP English Language and Composition course, she had her students look at various sources on prison reform before writing a persuasive essay about how best to reform the prison system that mirrored a synthesis-style prompt from the AP exam.

With these final assessments in mind, we started planning our term. Because of the time difference and scheduling constraints, we had to figure out a way to collaborate asynchronously.  In a Google document, we mapped out the schedules and assignments for each day. We decided to have students create Flip videos to introduce themselves and respond to various prompts about the book. The students got creative and excited about introducing themselves and showing off their schools through videos. Many talked about their sports or extracurricular activities, but they also got into silly details about traffic near campus or the view they have from classrooms. They also figured out that both schools’ mascots are the Hornets! It was an unexpected coincidence, but something to bond over and laugh about. This format worked well for them to get to know each other, have time to reflect on the book, and share their thoughts, even though our schedules didn’t align perfectly. Once we finished the book, we found a time to meet over Zoom, where they finally saw each other in real time. We prepared some questions, and they discussed the novel, learned about their prison reform research, and gave feedback to each other. 

As students worked on their papers we also heard from Bread Loaf alum Jennifer Coreas, who works for ConTextos in El Salvador, which “uses the power of literary arts and education to promote healing and reflection, and to foster critical thinking and dialogue through personal storytelling.” Jennifer was happy to meet with our class over Zoom and discuss her work in El Salvador and with the Cook County Department of Corrections in Chicago. She read stories written by incarcerated individuals and worked through exercises to get the students writing their own stories. What Jennifer shared about Contextos’ work opened their eyes to a different kind of reform: the idea that we all have stories to share, and when we hear those stories and connect to the humanity in all of us, perhaps we can start to heal—both those who are victims of violence and those victimized by the system. 

In developing their proposals and final papers, it was especially fruitful that students came from all over: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Montana, Alaska, California, China, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and the Denver metro area. With each student researching and presenting on the prison system in their home state or country, they learned about various systems and reforms. As they researched, it was fascinating to see what similar issues they found, what statistical patterns emerged, and how their approach to reform differed. From inequitable racial makeup to overcrowded prisons to poor treatment of prisoners by guards to lack of resources, the array of problems seemed vast. Solutions ranged from preventing crime by instituting better social welfare programs, making more rehabilitation programs available in and out of prisons, providing more mental health resources, extending higher-ed programs within prisons, and creating better training for prison staff. Here is an example from a student from Alaska:

It is no surprise the United States has some severe issues within the justice and prison system. The U.S. holds the highest incarceration rate in the world, and almost every individual state has a higher incarceration rate per capita than any other democracy. At the top of that list, higher than any state in America, is Alaska (Alaska Profile). As an Alaska resident, I found this statistic appalling. Within the incarcerated population in Alaska today, the ethnicities most represented are white, at 39%, and Alaska Native, at 42%. These statistics are wildly skewed. White people are underrepresented in prisons, while Alaska Natives are greatly overrepresented. Alaska Natives make up only 16% of the general population in Alaska, and white people 65% (Alaska Criminal Justice). Luckily, there is a spark of hope: restorative justice systems in conjunction with tribes and communities of Alaska. 

Another proposal from a Canadian student offers a multifaceted approach:

Canadian correctional facilities currently house more than 30,000 inmates in federal and provincial centers, with each prison operating at 175% capacity. This long-lasting issue within the government has persisted for decades due to the increasing arrest rate, resulting in the overpopulation of these centers. Additionally, prisons are not run in a manner that promotes rehabilitation, which should be the goal of these detention centers. Multiple reports over the years have shown that inmates are subjected to violence, other forms of abuse, and illnesses due to overcrowded facilities, and unfortunately the Canadian government has yet to undertake measures aimed at improving the conditions of inmates and exploring different types of incarceration. The main population within prisons consists of Indigenous people, “despite their representation consisting of less than 10% of the overall Canadian population” (Statistiques Canada, 2021). I propose making community-based alternatives for indigenous peoples to prevent illegal acts and rehabilitate incarcerated indigenous people with more education and substance abuse-focused ways to put them on the path to finding a well-paying job.

These final reform proposals were one of the most inspiring outcomes of this collaboration. In the past, my class had looked at corruption, abuses, patterns of racial injustice, and programs already in place for reform or rehabilitation, such as The Bard Prison Initiative. But because the research this year was student-centered, it put the work in their hands. They were the ones doing the research, looking at the statistics, and brainstorming ideas for reform. We still looked at The Bard Prison Initiative in New York and debated whether or not college should be available to prisoners, and watched the illuminating documentary 13th to look at how the prison system has roots in slavery, but then they went further. They examined programs currently being proposed or implemented across the country and even in other countries, such as the Restorative Justice programs in Alaska and Canada for Indigenous peoples, rehabilitation systems in Norway, and a massive overhaul of the criminal justice system in Massachusetts, to name a few. Even though some students complained about having to write a paper and do a presentation, that work provided the opportunity for them to become teachers.

“In general students were really excited about the Bard Prison Initiative and other education reforms,” Meriwether said. “They were also interested in public school reforms (which was encouraging) as a pathway to keeping people out of prison in the first place. They seemed to really get that connection. Parole reforms, more funding for strong representation for people who can’t afford it and more lawyers working on cases of people who were wrongfully imprisoned, etc. They had some good ideas.” 

Because of time constraints, our classes did not deliver their final projects to each other. We regret that. While public presentations may be intimidating, students often rise to the occasion and show pride in their work with the added pressure. It is also a marvelous opportunity for them to learn and hear more perspectives and ideas. Bringing together these young minds to brainstorm solutions to one of the most pressing issues of our time can bring about real change and provide hope that we can and will repair this broken system. 

In the end, this collaboration helped us develop a more comprehensive and intentional curriculum that got students discussing and thinking about prison reform in a new way. Instead of simply looking at two fictionalized stories involving the criminal justice system that seem far removed from their lives, students connected to real stories, explored current systems, and created dialogue around ideas for reform and change. While navigating different schedules and time zones may have presented some challenges, the students ultimately gained insights from voices they would have never heard without the Bread Loaf Teacher Network. 

Jennifer Summers teaches at Proctor Academy in Andover, NH.