Hutton Honors College

Behind Bars: Education and Rehabilitation
in the American Penal System

A Discussion Supper with Micol Seigel, Judah Schept,
and Michael Lewis

Monday, November 30, 2009 * 6:30-8 p.m. * Harlos House (1331 E. Tenth St.) * SIGN-UP REQUIRED

What is the purpose of the U.S. prison system—punishment? —crime control? —rehabilitation? Does the answer depend on why a person is put in prison and for how long? Should treatment depend on the kind of crime committed—bank fraud, child molestation? The age of the criminal—16 or 26? Once the legal system has put someone in prison, what are the effects—on individuals and on society? What challenges face former prisoners trying to reintegrate into society? How effective are organizations that assist the goal of rehabilitation and reintegration? Could you survive prison for a year? —a day?

Join IU professor Micol Seigel, community organizer Judah Schept, and Michael Lewis of the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project for a discussion about issues of reform and reintegration in the context of the U.S. penal system.

Seigel, of the Program in American Studies and of African American and African Diaspora studies, earned her doctorate from New York University in 2001. Among her research interests are mass incarceration, race in the Americas, and transnational method. Schept is a community organizer in Bloomington and a graduate student in the Department of Criminal Justice. His research is focused on resistance and social movements, prisoner narratives, cultural criminology, and alternatives to incarceration. Lewis is the Program Coordinator of the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project, an all-volunteer effort that strives to encourage self-education among prisoners in the United States.

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