CASSH Faculty Support Books and Literacy for Everyone
April 26, 2024 | Karen Tibbals | casshcommunications@uwf.edu
The University of West Florida and Santa Rosa Correctional Institution are celebrating their fourth year of collaboration in offering the Reading Writing Group (RWG) this fall. The RWG is a book club designed for incarcerated individuals in the Main Unit and the Annex portions of the prison. This year, for the first time, three Legal Studies undergraduate students from the Department of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Legal Studies will serve as assistants to the RWG. Harmony Kent, Emma Goldberg, and Gretchen Teasdale will participate in monthly non-fiction reading discussions and creative writing exercises with incarcerated individuals.
The groundbreaking program, led by Jennifer Brinkley, J.D., Assistant Professor of Legal Studies, is designed to increase incarcerated participants' literacy and provide opportunities for creative writing practice. Participants work on their reading and writing skills throughout the semester. The critical listening and thinking skills encouraged by RWG cannot be overlooked. According to Brinkley, RWG empowers participants to think outside of their literal box. Through RWG, participants can continue engaging with the outside world and critically reflect on their place within the community.
The RWG also offers a unique opportunity for Legal Studies students to dialogue with people in the justice system. Gretchen Teasdale, a Legal Studies student, shared, "It can be intimidating if you've never been through the process of entering a secure facility. It seems obvious to learn from and with people who are living these policies and can speak to their lasting impacts."
"The importance of this collaboration extends beyond education. Serving as an assistant to this group provides an opportunity to see first-hand how the justice system has affected a variety of people." - Emma Goldberg, Legal Studies Student
Incarcerated populations are underserved in terms of programming, and the RWG seeks to change this. Brinkley reached out to Santa Rosa about starting the Reading Writing Group in the fall of 2019 and is thrilled that the University of West Florida supports this type of literacy effort in our state prison system. The Escambia - Santa Rosa Bar Association awarded a grant to fund the non-fiction book selections for the participants this fall. By supporting literacy and writing programming, this grant has allowed the group to expand to more incarcerated participants and provided an opportunity for Legal Studies students to join the group. The RWG encourages communities to invest in programs that help with re-entry, as incarcerated individuals will be joining our communities again at the end of their sentences.
Brinkley and her students are not the only UWF faculty and students making a difference in this area. Scott Satterwhite, instructor of composition, rhetoric, public writing, and literature at the UWF Department of English, served as a community judge for another of Brinkley’s prison-focused projects, the Inside-Out program, on Tuesday, April 16th, 2024. The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program® is an international initiative that encourages dialogue and education among incarcerated individuals and university students. UWF currently offers the first and only course in the region, which Brinkley started with Assistant Professor Nicole Niebuhr in the spring of 2022. The spring 2024 students of the Inside-Out program did poster presentations, and Satterwhite was one of the two judges who graded their presentations.
Satterwhite has his own connection to books for prisons as the Co-founder of Open Books, a non-profit bookstore and community project in Pensacola. Satterwhite’s Prison Book Project, a nonprofit organization that sends books and promotes literacy to prisoners across Florida, has been going strong for 25 years. This past year, Open Books sent over 10,000 books to Florida prisons, a number close to the entire stock of the store, according to Satterwhite. Open Books works as a volunteer-run fundraiser for the Prison Book Project.
“Essentially, we build a new bookstore every year, spread out over the Florida prison system." - Scott Satterwhite
The Prison Book Project started with two paperback westerns sent by Satterwhite to a death row inmate. Initially, the project existed at Subterranean Books, but it moved to its own store on Pensacola’s west side after the former closed. The current location is on Guillemard Street. The books are donated or sourced from thrift stores and yard sales by volunteers and sent directly by the store to prisoners.
"We've grown exponentially thanks to the managerial experience of our general manager, Johnny Ardis, a Navy vet and UWF graduate,” said Satterwhite, the board president. Ardis runs the store, and Terry Covington runs the Prison Book Project. “It's a really rewarding thing to have co-founded, and to see how many lives it's taught is humbling,” said Satterwhite. He also wanted to emphasize how the program could not have succeeded without the many volunteers, many of whom are UWF students, who help in the store and hand-pick and package books for the recipients.
"The importance of literacy and education in prison systems cannot be overstated. Incarcerated individuals often have limited access to educational resources, which can hinder their ability to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for success post-release." - Jenn Brinkley
The Prison Book Project and the RWG program at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution address many of these issues by providing access to reading and writing materials and facilitating critical thinking and discussion. Participants in the Prison Book Project have access to many fiction and non-fiction books. They may request the types of books they enjoy, receiving the closest approximation available at Open Books. The RWG program focuses on non-fiction books, which they can use to improve literacy skills and increase knowledge on various topics, including current events. Additionally, the program encourages creative writing, which can help incarcerated individuals express themselves and reflect on their experiences constructively.
The RWG program also benefits UWF Legal Studies students, who have the opportunity to engage with justice-involved individuals and gain a greater understanding of the criminal justice system. By participating in the program, UWF students can develop critical thinking and communication skills, which can be beneficial in a range of career paths. Moreover, both programs provide an opportunity for students to engage in community service and to make a positive difference in the lives of others.
More information about the Reading Writing Group can be found on Jenn Brinkley’s website, www.jennbrinkley.com. More information on volunteering or donating to the Prison Book Project can be found on the Open Books website or by calling the store at 850-453-6774. Open Books is located at 1040 N. Guillemard St. and is open every day from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
