643 Restorative Justice 2: An Inside/Out Course

Class | Registration opens 2/3/2025 11:00 AM

1 Kelley Drive Coal Township, PA 17866 United States
SCI Coal Twp classroom
Tuesday, May 6, 2025-Tuesday, June 17, 2025
1:00 PM-4:00 PM on Tue
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$60.00

643 Restorative Justice 2: An Inside/Out Course

Class | Registration opens 2/3/2025 11:00 AM

This is an Inside/Out course where most course meetings will happen at the State Correctional Institution/Coal Township. It is a follow-up for the Restorative Justice course offered in the 2024 Fall term (BILL # 618). Students who participated in BILL 618 will be given preference for enrollment, although enrollment in the previous course is not required. 

The first class meeting on May 6 will be held in Lewisburg in the BILL office classroom and will be an orientation class. Classes from May 13 to June 17 will be held at SCI Coal Township and will include prisoners (who we call "insiders" in contrast to BILL students who are "outsiders"). Sandy Elion and Carl Milofsky have partnered to lead several insider groups in prison and several semesters of Inside/Out classes through BILL. 

Restorative justice is the process by which people who have been subject to trauma reconstruct the story of individuals' traumas, engage the people who caused the trauma and, by engaging the offenders and cooperating with them, seek to come to terms with the trauma and to reduce its current impact on the lives of victims. While traumatic events experienced by individuals and initiated by an offender are an important focus, traumatic events happen in the contexts of community life. Restorative justice involves communities recognizing that offenses have occurred repeatedly and that the community has a responsibility to address and support resolution and reconciliation in terms of the traumatic events. 

Restorative justice was suggested as the focus of our Inside/Out class by men living in the prison who were part of previous courses. Restorative justice is difficult in a prison because men who have been offenders generally cannot contact, interact with, or resolve life damages experienced by victims of crimes. However, restorative justice is important within the prison for managing conflict and inside men have read materials and discussed concepts related to restorative justice among themselves, in insider discussion groups. 

Inside men will tell the class how they use restorative justice to manage conflicts that occur within prison. The class will also discuss how restorative justice has been used to address trauma in Northern Ireland and the importance of storytelling by both victims and offenders as a way of reconciling conflict between offenders and victims.

  • Expectations of Participants: Email, some writing will be required, cell phone or other means for making contact on class days.

    The first class meeting on May 6 will be held in the BILL office classroom, #1. The following six sessions, 5/13, 5/20, 5/27, 6/3, 6/10 and 6/17 will meet at SCI Coal Twp. Carpooling from BILL may be possible.

    NOTE: Students must submit forms to be screened and approved by the prison before the first visit to the SCI Coal Township; they must adhere to rules about clothing and professional behavior.

  • REQUIRED TEXTS/MATERIALS:         

    Howard Zehr, The Little Book of Restorative Justice

    In addition to the required text by Zehr, selected chapters from Justice From the Inside Up by Felix Rosario (Living Justice Press) will be supplied by the instructors.

Carl Milofsky

CARL MILOFSKY is professor emeritus of sociology at Bucknell. His research has focused on human service organizations, the sociology of medicine and the sociology of communities. He taught Inside/Out classes with Bucknell students for five years and works as a volunteer with two inmate groups. He is co-author, editor, or co-editor of a number of journal articles and academic handbooks and authored Smallville: Institutionalizing Community in Twenty-first Century America, a book about community nonprofit organizations in Central Pennsylvania. 

Sandra Elion

SANDY ELION has a master’s degree in education from the University of Iowa and received her bachelor’s in child development from Connecticut College. She taught at the private West Branch School in Williamsport for 34 of her 37 teaching years, where she helped to lead the school as a curriculum designer and developer, filled the role of co-school director, and served as a board member. She was also very active in their theatre arts program. For 24 years she was an assistant varsity swim coach at Bucknell University. Wife of Carl Milofsky, Sandy was drawn into the SCI Coal Township, Inside/Out discussion group and has served as co-leader the group, comprised inside and outside people, since Spring of 2022. She has co-taught the BILL Inside/Out class since the Fall of 2023.