The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is an educational program tailored to effectively facilitate dialogue across difference. It originated as a means of bringing together campus-based college students with incarcerated students for a semester-long course held in a prison, jail or other correctional setting.
The Inside-Out Program currently boasts:
The Inside-Out experience led Brooke Maxey to pursue a graduate degree at OU’s Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work.
“I’m on the road to making something out of my life,” says Inside student Jennifer. “I learned that my opinion and education matter no matter where I am.”
This course examines a phenomenon known as the school-to-prison pipeline, which refers to the set of school policies and practices that push students, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds, out of school and into the criminal justice system. Over the semester, we will explore how exclusionary disciplinary (i.e., suspension and expulsion) and security practices, educational inequalities, and broader social structures contribute to students’ trajectories into the criminal justice system. Students will engage with key sociological and criminological theories, including labeling theory and social control theory, to analyze the intersection of education and punishment.
Associate Professor
Office: Kaufman 316
Phone: (405) 325-1751
Email: jgerlinger@ou.edu
Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 2017
This course examines the evolution of the victim’s role within the criminal justice system, moving from historical foundations to contemporary public policy and modern restorative justice. Rather than treating victimology as a purely academic subset of criminology, the curriculum approaches the field through an operational and systemic lens. In this course students will analyze how the justice system measures harm, how traditional courts interact with injured parties, and how alternative restorative frameworks are designed and implemented.
Renewable Term Assistant Professor
Office: Kaufman 337
Phone: (405) 325-1751
Email: Melissa.A.Smith-1@ou.edu
Ph.D. - University of New Haven, 2018
Death, Dying, and Religion (HON 3993) is an interdisciplinary discussion-based course exploring questions related to death and dying. Readings from history, psychology, medicine, philosophy, sociology, and journalism allow us to approach issues from a variety of perspectives. Sample topics include: grieving processes around the world; philosophical definitions of death; physical aspects of death; suicide and other ethical issues; artistic responses to death; and more.
Offered SPRING 2027!
Eligibility: Students must be enrolled in the Honors program OR have a minimum 3.4 GPA to interview for a spot in the class.
Professor of American Religion and Culture
Office: Boren Hall 150
Phone: (405) 325-5291
Email: 405-325-5291
Ph.D. - Temple University - 2006
All inside-out courses require:
1) instructor approval
2) preference given to juniors and seniors
3) background check upon acceptance into the course
For more information, please contact the professor that is teaching the specific course you are interested.
To discuss the inside-out program more generally, please contact professor Melissa Smith:
