New Grant to Deepen Relationship Between Saint Joseph’s and State Correctional Institution – Chester

Invoking a famous speech delivered by Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, the former Superior General of the Jesuits, Professor Ann E. Green, PhD, says Jesuit institutions of higher learning have a responsibility to expose students to “the actual world as it unjustly exists.”

A grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, newly awarded through the Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education in Prisons (PA CHEP), will help Green and her colleagues do that important work by deepening the relationship between Saint Joseph’s University and State Correctional Institution – Chester. 

Since 2007, Saint Joseph’s has partnered with the Inside-Out Prison Exchange program, an initiative that brings students inside local jails and prisons to learn alongside people experiencing incarceration. Green explains that everybody takes the same class and completes the same coursework to foster dialogue across social differences. 

The goal of these immersive service-learning courses is, as Green describes, for both groups to come away with a better sense of empathy for one another. Additionally, Saint Joseph’s students attain a deeper understanding of what mass incarceration looks like from inside the prison rather than outside. 

“I learned about restorative justice through a lens of compassion and understanding,” says Faith Adedokun, BS ’27. “Taking that course made me more than a better student; it made me a better member of my community.”

“I sincerely hope that more incarcerated individuals are given the opportunity to experience this course,” says Ty, who enrolled in the class while incarcerated at SCI Chester. “I felt as if I had a voice. People looked past the colors I wore and actually wanted to hear what I had to say. I felt human again.”

Now, Green and her colleagues are looking to broaden this impact. 

In addition to offering three credit-bearing courses, the recently awarded grant will allow Saint Joseph’s to further faculty development, both through training provided by Inside-Out and a new partnership with Greater Freedom Think Tank, a collective of incarcerated and unincarcerated educators and scholars. 

Saint Joseph’s will also now be able to play a bigger role in preparing those incarcerated at SCI Chester to reenter society. 

“Reentry,” says Green, “begins the first day you step foot in a prison. And one of the ways that you get ready to reenter is through education.” 

Green says that workshops on writing and communication, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy will help provide a sense of what to expect: What pathways are open to them? What skills are necessary? Will they pursue further education? 

Coming home can be overwhelming, but Green and her colleagues believe these workshops will make that transition easier. 

“It's our mission to be out in the world, and to bring the world into our campus,” Green explains. 

Doing so deepens students’ understanding and creates an avenue for them to do the emotional work of encountering someone different from themselves.