Philosophy across prison walls.(prison education and service-learning courses)

Abstract

At the intersection of prison education with service-learning courses, university students discover the humanity of inmates via the latter's principled concern with ethics and morality. Service learning becomes opposition to our prison nation, for it demonstrates the permeability of prison walls and highlights the practical importance of the analyses of Michel Foucault on the panopticon and Angela Davis on the prison-industrial complex.

Introduction

"Panopticon, shit. Not at San Quentin. Man, this is Snoopy-ville, no panopticon here." So spoke an inmate-student in my Ethics class at San Quentin Prison, enrolled in the only on-site ...