Ep 07: Interview with Jeri Kirby (West Virginia)

The seventh episode of the Inside-Out Podcast features Jeri Kirby, Chair of the Department of Social Sciences and Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Fairmont State University in West Virginia. Professor Kirby completed the Inside-Out Instructor Training Institute in 2010 with Lori Pompa and taught her first Inside-Out course during the same year. Jeri has co-facilitated several trainings in West Virginia and beyond. Click HERE to enroll in a training with Jeri in January 2020. Applications are due for that training by November 29, 2019.  

The Inside-Out podcast is hosted by Dave Krueger from The Inside-Out Center, the international headquarters of The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. To support the expansion of Inside-Out activities around the world, please make your contribution HERE. To enroll in an Inside-Out Instructor Training Institute, click HERE. 

Episode Transcription

Juwann Bennet: Hi, I’m Juwann Bennett and I teach Inside-Out courses at a state correctional institution through Temple University. Do you want your teaching to have a social justice impact? Do you believe that education should move us beyond the walls that separate us? Then you should apply now for our 2020 instructor training institutes. Locations include: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Alabama, Illinois, British Columbia. We still have space available for our West Virginia in January 2020. To find out more, visit our website at insideoutcenter.org or call 215-204-5163. 

Dave Krueger: In this episode of the Inside-Out Podcast, I speak with Professor Jeri Kirby, Chair of the Department of Social Sciences and Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Fairmont State University in West Virginia. Professor Kirby completed the Inside-Out Instructor Training Institute in 2010 and taught her first Inside-Out course during the same year. Jeri has co-facilitated several trainings in West Virginia and beyond. What’s unique about Jeri’s story is that she teaches Inside-Out in the same prison system in which she served her own sentence for more than two years.  

Jeri Kirby: I thought he was crazy because he wanted me to go back into prisons. But he just felt so strongly about. 

DK: I’m Dave Krueger from the Inside-Out Center, the international headquarters of The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program based at Temple University in Philadelphia and this is the Inside-Out Podcast. Stay tuned for the conversation with Jeri Kirby after this word by Tyrone Werts.

Tyrone Werts: The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program facilitates dialogue and education across social barriers. Inside-Out courses bring campus-based college students and incarcerated students together in jails and prisons for semester-long learning. These courses ignite enthusiasm for learning, help students find their voice, and challenge students to consider what good citizenship requires. Since Temple University professor Lori Pompa taught the first class in 1997