“[This class] has acted as the catalyst in my passion for life and human rights, and was the pivotal point where I realigned my own path… this program has brought me to a new understanding of life, not just in prison, but in my own life.  I have acquired the concrete knowledge of the true interworkings of the system, and at the same time come to realize my own captors in life.  I have heard the stories, felt the smiles, and seen the tears of women who have been to hell and back and with them I have found a voice.                                                        (Temple participant) 

The Inside-Out Courses

Graterford Think Tank

The goal of the Inside-Out Think Tank at Graterford Prison is to elevate public awareness about issues of crime and justice. Participants in the Think Tank - men incarcerated in Graterford and outside participants - have combined their respective life experiences, knowledge, and insights about crime, prison, victimization, and justice to create a dynamic within which these issues can be explored. Through a collaborative, multidimensional approach, the Think Tank aims to deepen the conversation - and transform ways of thinking - about issues of crime and justice and their impact on society as a whole.

Graterford activities include:

• Theme-Based Workshops offered to community representatives, public officials, neighborhood organizations, and students, faculty, and staff from area colleges and universities. More than 100 individuals have attended these workshops to date.
  
• Refining the core Inside-Out curriculum and developing an Inside-Out Instructor Training Program for national replication of the approach. The Think Tank will serve as an integral part of the training process, providing both demonstration and Q&A sessions.
  
• A series of Mural Projects in partnership with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, SCI-Graterford artists, and community representatives. The theme of this set of murals is "Victims and Healing."

• Other Inside-Out Projects include several collaborative, a documentary film project, internships, and programming focused on transitional issues.

Program Director

Lori Pompa has been going in and out of prisons and jails since 1985. She is Founder and Director of The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program which, for the past 10 years, has created opportunities for social change through dialogue between those inside and those outside of our nation's correctional facilities. As a 2003 Soros Justice Senior Fellow, she collaborated with others on both sides of prison walls to develop Inside-Out into a national model of transformative pedagogy. As a faculty member of Temple's Criminal Justice Department and the former Director of Experiential Learning for Temple's College of Liberal Arts, Lori Pompa has used a hands-on learning approach in her teaching for the past 14 years, taking more than 10,000 students behind the walls to enter into dialogue with men and women imprisoned there. Over the years, h er work has included education, counseling, social work, and advocacy about issues of concern to incarcerated men and women. She has been involved in many other community-based programs and projects in the Philadelphia area. She is a licensed social worker with an MSW from Rutgers University.