705 Conflict and Conflict Resolution: An Inside/Out Class

Class | Available (Membership Required)

1 Kelley Drive Coal Township, PA 17866 United States
SCI Coal Twp classroom
Tuesday, March 31, 2026-Tuesday, May 19, 2026
12:30 PM-4:00 PM on Tue
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$60.00

705 Conflict and Conflict Resolution: An Inside/Out Class

Class | Available (Membership Required)

Conflict is ubiquitous. Although people tend to think of it as dangerous and undesirable, conflict is a natural part of social life. It plays an important role in pulling communities together. It is an inevitable part of bargaining and negotiation, so strategic aspects of conflicts are important to consider. It also is a source of heartache and disruption. As a consequence, important methods like mediation and restorative justice have been developed to resolve conflict and to channel it in a positive direction.

This course is an Inside/Out course held at the State Correctional Institution at Coal Township. Meetings will be with inside members who are prisoners and outside members from BILL. Several of these Inside/Out courses have been held through BILL.  The topic of “conflict” was suggested by the “insider” partners from the prison.

Discussion in these classes has proven most rich when everyone has completed some challenging, engaging readings before we meet, forming a scaffold for class sessions.  Students should acquire the following, inexpensive required book (available from Amazon and other book sellers):

Lederach, John Paul, The Little Book of Conflict Transformation (New York: Good Books, 2003).

Following Lederach, the course offers the perspective that conflicts happen in settings where people are involved in an ongoing social system with a variety of relationships that periodically may become problematic.  Conflict in specific situations can usually be straightened out if people engage in dialog, if the larger network of their relationships is brought into the conversation, and if conflicts are seen as opportunities rather than dangers.

This is an eight-week course. In the first week we will discuss how conflict the men in our class experience in prison is different from the stereotypical views of conflict in prison. With the stereotype, one imagines intimidation and abuse.  For our men the conflict is more like what one experiences in an office.  ALL class members will be asked to bring to class short essays describing a conflict they have experienced and be prepared to share with the class.  We will want to talk about what conflict is and about the choices people made to manage the conflict.

In the second week we will discuss sociological writings about the “functions” of social conflicts.  In the third week our focus will be strategic approaches to operating within a conflict situation. In the fourth week, we will discuss small group processes where conflict develops. Different roles tend to evolve in groups, and some of these roles work at cross purposes.  A measure of conflict is structured into the situation.

In the fifth week we will consider how different personality styles are expressed in conflicts.  What approaches to managing conflict are available if we recognize the personality styles of combatants?  In the sixth week we will discuss mediation, the value of outside interventions and ways mediators can mobilize the personal networks of combatants to limit and control conflict.  In the seventh week, we will discuss utilizing the community to shape and limit conflict.  “Working the community” is an important approach in psychological treatment organizations and in many respects the community treatment is what is done in this prison, SCI Coal Township.

The eighth week will be a graduation celebration for members of the class.

  • Classes are being held on Tuesday afternoons and participants must plan to commit the whole afternoon to this class since travel time to and from the prison is required (45 minutes each way from Lewisburg). The class runs from 1:30-3:30 p.m. but we must arrive at 1:00 p.m. to allow for processing to enter. It also takes us about 20 minutes to get from the classroom in the prison school building to exit the front gate.

    Students will have to complete paperwork about four weeks before the class starts so they can be screened and given official clearance to enter the prison.

    Students need to have an email account and a cell phone or other means for making contact on class days.  We usually car pool out to the prison, and if someone does not show up, we will want to contact you.  If you are not able to attend one day, let Milofsky, the instructor, or Heather Wolf know since the prison has a checklist of everyone expected to enter, and missing people will delay our going into the prison.

    Entering the prison we all must pass through a sensitive metal detector and it is best to wear clothing without metal—like underwire bras, shoes with steel shanks, or even belts.  It is best to wear loose fitting clothes, long pants, and closed-toed shoes.

    The prison does not allow cell phones or Apple watches inside, so leave them in the car.  It is best not to wear much jewelry.  In general, you may not take anything into the prison or bring out anything you receive inside.  We will try to get permission for class members to bring in pads of papers, pens, and the daily readings.  Lockers are available in the entrance area, and car keys and other objects may have to be left there.

  • REQUIRED TEXT:
    Lederach, John Paul, The Little Book of Conflict Transformation (New York: Good Books, 2003)
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 began teaching Inside/Out classes with Bucknell students in 2016 and continued until his retirement.  He began teaching Inside/Out classes with BILL in 2022. 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 of the group, composed of inside and outside people, since Spring of 2022. She has co-taught the BILL Inside/Out class since the Fall of 2023.