Communications class to serve as teachers for prison inmates

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Spending a day with prison inmates may not typically be viewed as an educational
experience.
But speech, communication and dramatic arts Professor Ed Hinck will take his
IPC 267: Introduction to Debate class to the Saginaw Regional Correctional Facility
April 28 to serve as judges for inmate debates.
This trip will serve as a continuation of previous visits from other students.
Hinck took speech and debate students to the prison March 24 to teach principles
of debate and advocacy.
“This is an intellectual and emotional challenge. The students work with
people who committed a crime at one point in their lives and now they are trying
to improve their lives,” Hinck said.
Students function as teachers and coaches to the inmates and instruct prisoners
processes, concepts and strategies of debate. And they go through the process
of brainstorming arguments for both sides, Hinck said.
The students are scheduled to return to the prison Saturday for peer coaching
to help the inmates work on their first affirmative correction speeches. These
speeches will build a case for a resolution.
The speech and debate students are committed because this service is important
social work and contributes to the community, Hinck said. He said he thinks
students are excited to apply the concepts they’ve learned in class.
Students cannot have a criminal record in order to go to the prison. Once there,
students are patted down and given personal protection gear in case of an unlikely
assault, Hinck said.
“We are empowering these individuals to learn how to deal with problems
through words,” he said.
The students serve as teachers and inmates serve as learners, but inmates also
teach the students what it is like to be a human being. This experience challenges
the stereotypes of offenders, Hinck said.
Hinck contributes to the teaching but tries to let the students do most of it,
he said.
“This experience is very rewarding. The students want to come to class
and are hungry for knowledge. Sometimes this is a first, second or 14th chance
for them. They ask interesting questions and want to apply the knowledge they
have learned. Nothing is more rewarding for a teacher than to see students’
intellect come alive, and that’s what happens,” Hinck said.
Hinck and his students do not ask why the inmates are in prison because it would
affect teacher-student relationships and interfere with the learning process.
This is the fourth year Hinck has taken students to prisons. Other facilities
include the Saginaw Correctional Facility, the Riverside Correctional Facility,
the Ionia Temporary Correctional Facility and the Huron Valley Men’s Correctional
Facility.