Something else to talk about.
About Us
Inside Literature is a 501(с)(3) non-profit corporation and community-based learning program in Austin, Texas. We provide university-level instruction to inmates in pre-trial facilities at zero cost to taxpayers. We offer 6-week literature courses led by instructors with advanced degrees in related fields.
We use Community-Based Learning, a teaching approach distinguished by an emphasis on reflection as well as collaboration and reciprocity among community members. Community-Based Learning programs enrich students’ academic experience and encourage civic engagement while confronting community challenges and supporting community interests.
Our Mission
We foster community ties, critical engagement, and personal growth through the collective study of literature with incarcerated persons.
We believe that providing the most educationally underserved members of our community with an opportunity to read and discuss great literature benefits our students and instructors, as well as corrections and law enforcement officers and the wider community.
Inside Literature reminds people that they belong to a community by creating those ties through literature as a common ground. Literature allows students a mediated approach to sensitive topics like identity, race, employment, etc. and promotes community ties when read and discussed together.
Core Values
RECIPROCITY: We believe literature is primarily a meeting place, secondarily a professional discipline. We believe in a student-centered approach to encourage learning from others through engagement with literature. Dialogue is an essential aspect of the program.
REFLECTION: Literature provides an opportunity for self-reflection, both when it is read and when it is discussed. Engaging with literature provides opportunities for self-discovery, self-efficacy, and critical thinking.
COLLABORATION: IL fosters human connection in the meeting ground of the literary text. Both teachers and students have something to learn and something to teach in our program. Teachers lead class sessions in teams of two to model collaboration as well as to provide witnessing and accountability during the class sessions.
CITIZENSHIP: Above and beyond the professional integrity mandated by a career in the Humanities, IL is committed to contributing to the community as educators to make the study of literature available to as wide an audience as possible.
Inside Literature works exclusively with an underserved population of pre-trial inmates.
Approximately 20% of all prison and jail inmates in the United States are currently awaiting trial
Frequently those who are incarcerated pre-trial are unable to pay their bail and are incarcerated because of poverty
The typical American defendant earns less than $7,000 in the year prior to arrest
Less than 50% of pretrial inmates are able to post bail, even when bail is set at $5,000 or less
11.5 million Americans are currently cycling in and out of our jails annually
“This is my event of the week. To interact with the other guys in class on a level not convict related has given me the gift of better understanding and respect for my peers. Hopefully classes like these can keep coming and allow others to share these same gifts.”
— Student evaluation