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CHICAGO — For college senior Nana Ampofo, an unconventional book club inside one of the nation’s largest prisons changed her career ambitions.
Every week, the 22-year-old drives a van of her DePaul University classmates to Cook County Jail to discuss the books with inmates and, most recently, renowned activist Sister Helen Prejean. Ampofo arrives at the Chicago prison prepared with thought-provoking questions to start a conversation about the latest books they are reading together.
One rule of the club is clear: discussion about personal lives is encouraged, but no questions are allowed about why other members are in jail.
“This is part of dehumanizing people. You want people to tell you their story and have their own autonomy,” Ampofo said. “When you go in with an open mind, you see that people are just like you.”
The student-led volunteer effort began years ago as an offshoot of a DePaul program offering college credit classes at the prison on the city’s southwest side for students and inmates. The book club, with a new group each academic quarter, tackles books that correspond individually with group members who are almost all black or Latino.
Associated Press journalists were allowed into the prison Monday to watch the final meeting of the existing club to discuss Prejean’s book, “Dead Man Walking,” where the Louisiana anti-death penalty activist made a special appearance. The book, which was also adapted into a film and an opera, is about his experiences as spiritual advisors to a couple on death row in the 1980s.
Sitting in a circle inside the window-filled prison chapel, 10 inmates in brown prison-issued uniforms sat between four college students and Prejean, who visits Catholic University in Chicago each year.
Ampofo, who had advocated for Prejean’s trip, cried when she described how important the group members and their discussions were to her. There was laughter when Prejean told a vulgar joke involving Louisiana bayou folk characters. And when one inmate, Steven Hair, discussed why many prisoners return to prison, there was a heated exchange.
“Our society doesn’t invest in solutions,” he said. “And when they get out, they’ll do what they know.”
Book club members seized the opportunity to ask Prejean questions, including the differences between the book and the movie and what it’s like to watch people die.
The 85-year-old nun has been sentenced to death seven times. His archival papers are housed at DePaul, including script notes for the 1995 film starring Susan Sarandon.
After witnessing his first execution, Prejean said he felt nauseous, but decided it was a privilege to be with people in their final moments.
“When you witness something that starts to burn in your heart for justice, that we have to change this,” he said.
As a white woman growing up in the South, Prejean said her work in prison opened her eyes about racism.
The majority of detained book club members are black, which reflects the demographics of the prison, which houses approximately 5,000 detainees. According to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, about 70% of inmates are involved in some type of educational programming such as book clubs.
But the involvement of college students sets the book club apart from other activities.
“When suddenly you have students from outside sitting next to you, you start to feel different,” Dart said. “It changes the mindset.”
Inmates are invited to participate based on their interest, he said. He said their behavior on the inside determines their ability to get involved, not what they are devoting time to. Health issues are also taken into account.
The prison’s waiting list for entry to the club has grown to 40 people.
Jarvis Wright, who has been detained in Cook County for two years, said he is a reader but has never been in a book club before. The 30-year-old man studies at night when the prison is quiet. Other book club picks include “The Color of the Law,” which highlights housing segregation.
“Even though we’re sitting here incarcerated and waiting for our cases to be heard, it gives us something positive to look at,” Wright said. “We’re not just wasting time here.”
DePaul has offered college classes through a national program called Inside-Out Prison Exchange since 2012. Classes are held at both Cook County Jail and Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum security men’s prison about 40 miles north of Chicago.
Security guards are present during the book club, but no one is shackled.
Helen Damon-Moore, who oversees prison education programs at DePaul, says security has never been an issue.
“They’re all the same when they’re in,” Damon-Moore said.
Detainee Stanley Allen, 36, said he was attracted to the club because it was associated with a college. He hopes to take classes for credit in the future. For him, the most amazing part of the club was meeting college students and preseason.
“There are really nice people there,” he said.
Other book club members say the experience has brought them closer.
“I feel like I’m talking to a bunch of my brothers,” Seven Clark, a sophomore at DePaul in Chicago, told the group. “Your way of talking is very familiar. it feels like home.”
Ampofo will return to prison at the end of the week when a new club focusing on black women’s writing will launch. It’s a theme that resonates with her as the American-born daughter of a Ghanian immigrant mother.
The first in her family to graduate from high school, Ampofo plans to attend graduate school to pursue museum studies. She dreams of improving access to museums for incarcerated people and their families.
“I want to take care of people,” she said. “And I’ve got the people I want to take care of.”
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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