Giving Incarcerated Women a Chance at Furthering Their Education
Maya Bartleson | December 6, 2023
If you are a Warren Wilson College (WWC) student, chances are you have heard of the Inside Out program and maybe even participated in the classes. Inside Out is a program that works directly with prisons around the country to bring college students into prison classrooms to take classes with incarcerated people. The Inside Out Prison Exchange Program was started at Temple University in 1997 and WWC began the program with Western Correctional Center for Women in 2016, becoming the first ever school in N.C. to participate in the program.
WWC students enrolled in the program travel to the Western Correctional Center to earn credits alongside incarcerated women. The Inside Out program’s goal is to give incarcerated people the opportunity to earn a college degree while serving their sentence in hopes that the degree will open more doors for the inmates when they are released.
However, WWC has a completely different goal for the program.
Faculty at WWC have been working directly with staff at the Western Correctional Center to create a themed dorm for incarcerated women to live on campus once they are released. WWC has proposed that the Hemlock House be repurposed into themed residential living for any formerly incarcerated women who want to continue their education at WWC.
One professor at WWC has been a huge contributor to this proposed idea.
Sarah Himmelheber is a social work professor at WWC who based her First Year Seminar (FYS), Pivoting Towards Community Justice, on this proposed living space. Students in her class have spent the semester planning a wellness garden at the Hemlock House, focusing on how to make the house comforting for the hopeful future students who may live there.
Himmelheber stresses that her goal for this garden is to help make the new living space more than just four walls.
When the proposed living space gets approved, WWC has the opportunity to provide a safe space for formerly incarcerated women to further their education, giving the women a unique support system they might not find elsewhere.
Moreover, the house also benefits students. Much like the Inside Out Program, WWC students would have the opportunity to learn from formerly incarcerated women and their experiences. This opens up opportunities for student’s views to broaden; students can benefit from further educating themselves on the diverse cultures and lifestyles that these women would bring to WWC.
To spread this idea around campus, Himmelheber’s FYS hosted an event at the Hemlock House. Himmelheber and her students displayed the work done by the class, centering the discourse around what this proposed idea would mean to students and staff at WWC.
“Housing is always more than just a bedroom and a kitchen,” Himmelheber said.
The Hemlock House stands as more than new housing — it stands as new opportunities for both students and formerly incarcerated women alike and promises a new start.