University of Illinois free and incarcerated students will get the chance to take a creative writing course together this fall.
The Education Justice Project at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has brought university courses to Danville Correctional Center for almost two decades, and fall of 2026 will be the second semester “blended” courses are available.
EJP Director Rebecca Ginsburg said the addition is at the request of those incarcerated in Danville.
“The EJP students at Danville Correctional Center are really clear about the perceived benefits to them of participating in a blended course – one of them being the opportunity to meet young people that are around the same age as their grandchildren or their nieces or their nephews or their children,” Ginsburg said.
That way, when the EJP students end their prison sentences, they will know how to interact with their young relatives.
The U of I College of Law hosted a panel discussion about the blended classroom model with EJP on Tuesday. The discussion started with a screening of “Classroom 4,” a documentary about a similar class run by the Lewis & Clark College in Oregon.
Then three panelists talked about their perspectives on the blended or “inside-out” model. One panelist was Michael Tafolla, a gun violence research and evaluation expert in Chicago. He was incarcerated for two decades and took classes with EJP during that time. He thinks blended classrooms are a good idea.
“As an EJP student and an academic in that setting, we craved to be connected to people that had a different background, a different mindset, because you learned so much,” Tafolla said.
For the Urbana-Champaign students, the course offers a chance to distinguish myth and reality in information about prisons and prisoners.
First year law student Cal Shaklee was sitting at the back of the auditorium for the panel discussion. He took a similar course while an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma.
“It helped break down so many misconceived and preconceived notions about what is going on in a prison, what that environment looks like and what the people in that environment look like,” Shaklee said. “Some of the people that I had the opportunity to meet were some of the most well-read and intelligent people that I’ve ever encountered. It was an amazing experience.”
EJP led a blended classroom of incarcerated and free students in 2024. This fall will feature a creative writing course taught by English professor Michael Hurley. Most of the semester, the students will talk over Zoom from their respective classrooms in Danville and Urbana-Champaign. They will meet in person at the prison for three classes.
The Education Justice Project is hosting an information session on Monday, March 9 for those interested in taking the course.