Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/740502
F a l l 2 0 1 6 I V a n c o u v e r F o u n d a t i o n l p a g e 9 In January 2016, Kevin Wong was a 23-year-old criminology student who, inspired by cop movies, wanted to become a police officer. Ian Desrosier was a 41-year-old inmate at the Nanaimo Correctional Centre (NCC), nearing the end of his two-year sentence for breaking and entering. Both were nervous as they showed up for the first class of a unique course called Social Exclusion and Marginalization offered by Nanaimo's Vancouver Island University (VIU). Over four months of attending weekly classes, they both realized their lives had changed. ey were participants in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, in which university students like Wong are Outside learners who study alongside imprisoned students, the Inside learners. e two groups met for three hours every Monday eve- ning at the NCC, where everything from privilege and counter- culture to sexual orientation and masculinity were discussed in a setting where barriers disappeared and students became intellec- tual equals. "When you read about things like poverty, addiction and disabilities, you're desensitized. You don't care," Wong says. "After talking to guys like Ian, you learn about their struggles. You get more empathy, compassion. Ian has taught me a great deal about resilience over the short time that I've known him. He is someone who has been through a lot in life, yet he always seems to have a positive attitude, even in the darkest of times." eir professor, Joanne Falvai, brought the innovative program to VIU. e Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program was developed in Philadelphia in 1997 by Lori Pompa, a Temple University crimi- nal justice professor who spent time with a man serving a life sen- tence. She wanted post-secondary students and incarcerated men and women to learn from one another and work together as peers, not as groups divided by race, educational backgrounds or eco- nomic circumstances. Now, Inside-Out is offered by more than 140 American colleges and universities. Falvai heard about Inside- Out at a conference in Winnipeg in 2014, and was intrigued. Students in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program discover the transforming power of education By Shannon Moneo | Photos nik WeSt Beyond Bars Ian Desrosier and Kevin Wong