The Classroom and the Cell

The Baffler, January 2022: The Classroom and the Cell

“Several years ago, I became a college tutor at a maximum-security prison. This decision was not prompted by a single moment of moral awakening, and while U.S. media had been awash in horrific depictions of mass incarceration, I cannot remember a particular book or documentary that spurred me to act. Instead, I was possessed by the idea that this was a good thing to do, even if that conviction was accompanied by a powerful suspicion that I might be attaching myself to an icky and absurd enterprise. As H.L. Mencken once noted, do-gooders tend to be less interested in serving than in exercising power.

“My doubts were realized a few weeks into the program, when I presented my still-vertical driver’s license to a correctional officer. He gave me a long stare, and when he returned my ID, he did so with a smirk, wondering aloud if I was old enough to ‘ride this ride.’ I had not given my age much thought before then, and the shame I felt in that moment made me never want to think of it again. But I began to consider the chasm of experience between myself and the men I had agreed to help with a new and bitter acuity.”

Additional reading:

Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison by Chris Hedges on bookshop.org

Media Sanctuary, October 19, 2021: "Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison" with Chris Hedges