705 Conflict and Conflict Resolution: An Inside/Out Class

Class | Registration opens 2/9/2026 11:00 AM

1 Kelley Drive Coal Township, PA 17866 United States
SCI Coal Twp classroom
Tuesday, April 14, 2026-Thursday, June 25, 2026
12:30 PM-4:00 PM on Tue Th
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$60.00

705 Conflict and Conflict Resolution: An Inside/Out Class

Class | Registration opens 2/9/2026 11:00 AM

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 the strategy of conflict is 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 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 with BILL, and 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. 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, while for our men the conflict is more like what one experiences in an office.  In the second week we will discuss sociological writings about the “functions” of social conflicts.  In the third week our focus will be on economic thinking about game theory, strategy and the market as a structure based on competition and conflict.  In the fourth week, social psychological theories of conflict will be our focus. This discussion will be related to small group processes where conflict develops and is managed, as well as to institutional situations where we must manage feelings of anger and frustration with people in the group and our need to work constructively with others despite those feelings.

The conflict resolution part of the course will begin in the fifth week with a discussion of mediation, the value of outside interventions and consideration of risks and methods for running mediation processes. The sixth week will deal with restorative justice, particularly with ways minority and oppressed voices can be brought into the process. The seventh week will deal with methods and techniques for how conflict can be managed and limited within a community. Considering the population of incarcerated men in a prison, how can people who are members of the community take the lead in limiting and resolving conflicts?  The eighth week will be a graduation celebration for members of the class.

  • THE DATES, DAYS AND TIMES THAT THIS CLASS WILL MEET HAVE NOT YET BEEN DETERMINED!
    The instructors, Carl Milofsky and Sandy Elion, are working with Coal Township State Correctional Institute administrators to schedule the eight class meetings that will comprise this class. We expect that the class will begin in April, but may start as late as May. It is likely to be scheduled on a Tuesday or Thursday, but we do not know yet. The actual schedule is due to be settled before registration begins on Feb. 9, 2026. Please check back for the updated schedule.

    OTHER CONSIDERATIONS: 

    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 will also need to have an email account and to have a cell phone or other means for making contact on class days. Some writing will be required.

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 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.