Honors College Theses

Publication Date

4-20-2018

Major

Justice Studies (B.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Chad Posick

Abstract

The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program involves students from Georgia Southern University and inmates from Smith State Prison who interact and hope to receive a deeper understanding of the justice system through experiential learning. This style of learning has demonstrated greater effectiveness in learning outcomes and a more positive student experience compared to classical, lecture-based learning. No previous research has compared changes in perceptions of students in the Inside-Out Program to a lecture based course of the same content. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in students’ attitudes towards prisoners over eight weeks between participants in the Inside-Out Program and a corrections class. In opposition to previous research, no significant differences were reported in attitudes towards prisoners between groups. Future investigations should continue to examine the transformed opinions of students in experiential and classical learning courses, while using a larger sample size and a longer time period between assessments.

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