HYBRID: Inside Out Program with Reiko Hillyer

Lewis and Clark professor Reiko Hillyer discusses the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, which brings fifteen people incarcerated at the Columbia River Correctional Institution and fifteen undergraduate students together in courses taught by Lewis & Clark College faculty. For both students and faculty, the experience is powerful and transformative. “None of us will ever look at the world the same way,” one student said. 

Biography: Reiko’s proudest accomplishment is bringing the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program to Lewis & Clark, which is a program that began at Temple University and whose mission is to bring undergraduates inside prisons to learn alongside people who are incarcerated. Reiko’s course, “Crime and Punishment in US History,” is taught at Columbia River Correctional Institution (CRCI) in North Portland to an integrated group of Lewis & Clark and incarcerated students. In 2019, Reiko won a Public Humanities Seed Grant from the Whiting Foundation to produce a piece of devised theater at CRCI as the culmination of this class. In 2021, the Oregon Community Foundation awarded $75,000 for the production of a second devised theater piece, generated by incarcerated and free students, at an acclaimed local theater with professional actors. 

A livestream will also be available at https://www.youtube.com/@LakeOLib/streams(link is external).

For more information contact Nancy Niland at nniland@lakeoswego.city or (503) 675-2538