Last year, as part of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, students from colleges around Michigan came to G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility to take courses with students who were incarcerated there. These classrooms created an outlet for us to talk to one another on equal ground, workshop ideas, and share our points of view on political issues.
There were also classes focused on communication available, but they were a joke to me. After all, I’d de-escalated heated arguments between inmates and convinced rooms full of prisoners to agree on important issues. I was also known to be the one who orchestrated days full of activities, like Spades games and basketball tournaments. In short, my communication skills were on point, and I couldn’t wait to test drive the gab I claimed to be gifted with on the outside students.
After about a week of a workshop where we were discussing how America punishes its criminals, an outsider said Michigan needed to create more prisons and train prosecutors to be more aggressive in the courts.
The inside students got revved up, citing multiple points that went against her claim. We, the incarcerated, explained how conditions inside were shaped by racial bias and, therefore, not corrective. I went as far as comparing prison to slavery. The young woman started crying so hard she had to excuse herself from class. And she never came back.
Source: I Was Proud of My Gift of Gab. Then I Took a Communications Class Led by Fellow Prisoners.
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