Archive for the ‘UBB News & Events’ Category
Monday, January 30th, 2012
Professor Dylan Rodriguez is guest lecturing at University of Washington-Seattle and the Washington State Reformatory as part of Transformative Education Behind Bars. Professor Rodriguez is a founding member of Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex and the author of Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime (2006). He is professor and chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California-Riverside.
On Tuesday, January 31, Professor Rodriguez is speaking at the University of Washington (4pm, Communications Building, Room 120) about his political and intellectual work addressing the social logics of racial genocide as they operate through the changing systems of racist state violence, global white supremacy, and other forms of institutionalized dehumanization.
On Wednesday, February 1, Professor Rodriguez is visiting the Washington State Reformatory and giving a lecture to UBB students as part of UBB’s Arts and Lecture Series.
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Monday, January 30th, 2012
University of Washington professor, Gillian Harkins, and graduate student, Anne Dwyer, were featured in the November 2011 issue of Perspectives, a quarterly newsletter from the College of Arts and Sciences at UW. The article, From Melville to Monroe, highlights Gillian and Anne’s teaching experiences with UBB. Read the full article here.
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Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
We had a great turnout at our November enrollment, with around 120 students signing up for classes in our College and Certificate pathways. We are proud to offer our largest course schedule to date, with a total of 18 courses for our January semester! We are also happy to announce that we will be partnering with Edmonds Community College for two of our college courses, English 101 and History 116. Classes begin January 9, 2012. Please click here to view the full January schedule.
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Friday, October 28th, 2011
Local hip hop acts Theoretics, F2D Brothers (aka Funkee 2 Death), Bucket of Honey, and DJ Leopold Bloom performed at Nectar Lounge on November 13th. Thank you to all the artists and supporters for attending, the event was a huge success!
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
On October 12, 2011, UBB faculty, supporters, and guests gathered to honor over 100 students for their academic achievement during the 2010 year. The ceremony was held in the visiting room at the Washington State Reformatory, with over 75 family members and guests in attendance. Guests included Rep. Mary Helen Roberts; Terra Rose, aide to Rep. Larry Seaquist, head of the House Higher Education Committee; Randy Dorn, Superintendent of Public Instruction for Washington; and also from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dan Newell, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education and School Improvement.
Certificates were awarded to students who completed college or certificate courses during the 2010 academic year. During 2010, 117 men from the Washington State Reformatory and 13 women from the Washington Corrections Center for Women earned 647 hours of college credit and 636 hours of certificate credit.
Speakers included Scott Frakes, Superintendent of Monroe Correctional Complex; Felix D’Allesandro, UBB student; Dolphy Jordan, former UBB student who was recently released; and Sherri Caldellis, mother of UBB student, Noel Caldellis. The full program and list of honorees can be viewed here.
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
We are having a great Fall semester! In October, we are awarding over 1,200 hours of college and certificate credits, and in November, we are participating in a national prison conference held at the University of Washington campus. The conference begins with a site visit to our program at the Washington State Reformatory, where guests will meet our students and participate in a panel discussion led by our Student Advisory Committee.
Read more in our Fall newsletter!
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Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Guests enjoyed a star-spangled night of music and fun and sampled prison cuisine from our new cookbook, Convict Cookery!
The event was Saturday, November 5, 2011. All proceeds from the evening will go toward this semester’s tuition and fees. Thank you to all the donors and guests for supporting the students or UBB!
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
On November 4-6, 2011, the Transformative Education Behind Bars (TEBB) hosted The National Conference on Prison Higher Education, bringing together prison higher education leaders at the University of Washington, Seattle.
UBB teachers and volunteers have played an important role in the TEBB collective, which is generously supported by a grant from the University of Washington Simpson Center for the Humanities.
In its first year (2010-2011), TEBB focused on assessing current prison-based education efforts in the region and developing local curriculum for college readiness courses. Now in its second year, TEBB aims to develop a broader coalition of prison higher education programs, create and implement educational assessment plans for University Beyond Bars, and explore the possibilities of an Inside-Out program at the University of Washington. The TEBB conference will help facilitate the process of identifying and moving towards the shared goals of stakeholders in prison higher education.
Gillian Harkins, University of Washington professor of English and volunteer instructor for UBB, heads up this initiative.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2011
4:00-9:30 pm: Site Visit to WSR Monroe Correctional Facility
5:00 pm: Screening of SEAN PICA’s ZERO PERCENT, CMU 120 (view trailer)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2011
9:00 am: Welcome & Coffee
9:30 – 11:00 am: Panel 1: PRISON PEDAGOGIES
- Moderator: Vik Bahl, Green River Community College
- Jenifer Drew, Boston University Prison Education Program
- Carol Estes, University Beyond Bars
- Nalini Nadkarni, University of Utah
- Kaia Stern, Prison Studies Project, Harvard University
This panel gives us a chance to discuss teaching in the prison context. Is there anything unique about teaching inside prison? Have you found specific obstacles or opportunities teaching in this context? Are there particular strategies that you have used to create a learning environment or to reach learning objectives? Can you discuss one example of pedagogical experimentation that met with success or failure and reflect on what you learned from this experiment? How important is pedagogy in creating successful learning in this environment?
11:15 am-12:45 pm: Panel 2: PROGRAM MODELS
- Moderator: Tanya Erzen, Ohio State University
- Melissa Crabbe, Inside-Out
- Simone Davis, Inside-Out
- Kenneth Parker, St. Louis University Prison Program
- Loretta Taylor, WWCC at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center
This panel gives us a chance to share program models and to consider how programs are designed to meet specific needs within a range of contexts. Is there one program model that meets a wide range of needs/contexts? Or are all models necessarily different? Are there common approaches to working with the Department of Corrections, with host Universities/Colleges, and with student populations? What kinds of record keeping, admissions and enrollment processes, advising, and teacher training have you found effective? How do you use a Board of Directors, advisory committee, or other governing bodies? How much/little structure is suited to a prison higher education program? What would make a model scalable (expandable to other institutions) and is that desirable?
12:45-1:30 pm: Lunch Break
1:30 – 3:00 pm: Panel 3: ASSESSMENT TOOLS
- Moderator: Carrie Mathews, University of Washington
- Rebecca Ginsburg, Education Justice Project
- Mary Gould, St. Louis University Prison Program
- Jody Lewen, Prison University Project
- Stephen Meyer, RMC Research
This panel gives us a chance to collaborate on best practices for assessment within prison higher education programs. Why is it important to document what works and what does not? For whom are we documenting our success and how can we disseminate our findings most effectively? How do we design assessment that measures success as defined by funders or a broader public? How do we design assessment that measures our own standards for success, which may be different among programs as well as between programs and funders? Are there common goals that we can assess across programs? How do we relate student learning assessment, effective teaching assessment, and overall program assessment? I’m also interested in knowing what other programs’ evaluation protocols–i.e. what are the on-the-ground logistics of their evaluation practices? Who collects data? From whom? In what form? Who evaluates it? How and with whom is data shared?
3:15 – 4:45 pm
Panel 4: PROGRAM SUSTAINABILITY
- Moderator: Stuart Smithers, University of Puget Sound
- Celia Chazelle, Center for Prison Outreach and Education (TCNJ)
- Stephanie Haas, College and Community Fellowship (CCF)
- Sean Pica, Hudson Link
- Kyes Stevens, Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project
This panel gives us a chance to share ideas about program sustainability and access to higher education behind bars. How important is a well-rounded fundraising strategy to sustaining higher education programs inside prisons? What are the obstacles and opportunities presented by working with major foundations, with state contracts, and/or with private donors? Has anyone met success with grassroots or community-based support campaigns? What kind of institutional support is required to sustain programs over time: from Universities/Colleges, from the Department of Corrections, from volunteers/staff? Are grassroots, public media, and/or legislative campaigns important to sustain programs and access to higher education on the inside? What kinds of connections to broader higher education initiatives might help in this work?
5:00 pm
Closing Comments: Bernie Warner, WA Department of Corrections
5:30-7:00 pm
Simpson Center Reception, CMU 202
7:00 – 10:00 pm
University Beyond Bars Silent Auction Fundraiser
(sponsored by University Beyond Bars)
Lake City Elks Club
14540 Bothell Way NE
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2011
9:30–11:00 am:
Roundtable Discussion: Moving Forward
Moderator: Gillian Harkins, University of Washington
11:00 am–12:00 pm:
NW Regional Coalition Meeting
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Friday, August 19th, 2011
The first ever UBB Art Show, Non-Sufficient Funds, opened in late April to a full-house of friends, artists’ family members, intrigued gallery goers and passer-by strangers.
Hung close together, the artworks – the majority of which in bright acrylic paint – formed an eye-bashing gestalt. With 117 works on show, it was, according to gallery owner Diana Adams, the busiest exhibition ever mounted at Vermillion.
“It’s the first show I’ve ever put up,” said art teacher Pete Brook, “It took two days. All the effort was worth it. The show looks great; families are here and we’re engaging the public about a [prison] population they rarely see or learn about.”
The visual energy was at times overwhelming. But so was the bustle; over a hundred people packed the venue at the mid-evening point. It was then Brook addressed the crowd and encouraged them to consider the individual efforts of the artists on show, the wider landscape of incarceration in the U.S., and the ever-present need for meaningful education and rehabilitation programs behind bars. In closing, he said, “while we are political, we are also hopeful.” Glasses were raised to the absent artists.
Popular with the audience were the narrative works by students usually addressing in some way their families, emotions or histories.
The wall of artists’ portraits gave gallery-goers an opportunity to see the faces and read the biographies behind the art. The spotlit and high contrast portrait photographs were made by Erika Schultz as part of a special workshop in Washington State Reformatory the month prior.
Pete Brook and the students would like to acknowledge the help of the staffs at The Stranger and the Seattle Weekly for their coverage; UBB program co-ordinator Stacey Reeh; all the team at Vermillion – Diana, Raymond, Jessica, Brian & AJ; partner artists Buddy Bunting and Paul Rucker; and of course the students’ families who continue to offer their unflagging support.
The total amount of money raised was in excess of $1,500, all of which will go toward UBB art supplies and tuition fees.
Selected Press
Insider Art: A Show from the State’s Most Unlikely Art Academy (Seattle Weekly)
Slideshow – “Insider” Art: Prisoner Art From the Washington State Reformatory (Seattle Weekly)
Suggests. Non-Sufficient Funds, Thursday 28th. (The Stranger)
Blog: Monroe Prison Art on Display at Vermillion on Capitol Hill (Seattle Weekly)
Now You Can Own Art By Monroe Inmates (Seattle PI)
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Friday, August 19th, 2011
Over 2.3 million people are currently incarcerated in the United States. That’s one out of every 100 adults. What is the purpose of prison? Is it simply to deny offenders their time and freedom? Is it to lock dangerous people away from society? Should rehabilitation be a goal? What happens when inmates are released from prison — has justice been served? Many states are cutting prisoner rehabilitation programs because of budget restrictions. Can non-profits fill the gap?
These were the questions KUOW’s Steve Scher put to guests Patrice Gaines, former felon and cofounder of The Brown Angel Center, a program in Charlotte, NC, that helps formerly incarcerated women become financially independent; Jacqueline Helfgott, chair of the criminal justice department at Seattle University; and our very own Carol Estes.
You can listen to the entire program at the KUOW website.
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Category UBB News & Events | Tags: Tags: Carol Estes, Jacqueline Helfgott, KUOW, Patrice Gaines, Rehabilitation, Restorative Justice,
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