Students Visit Prison to Document the Lives of Inmates

Twelve University of Tulsa students traveled to rural Oklahoma on Thursday, Feb. 7, to interview women inmates at the Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center.

The prison visit was part of a journalism class called Documentary Workshop, a class designed to get students out of the classroom so that they can learn about and document the lives of Oklahomans different from themselves.

The first class project was the trip to Taft, a town of 500 about a hour's drive southeast of Tulsa that has two state prisons, the Jess Dunn Correctional Center for men, and the Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center, a facility that houses nearly 800 women.

The TU students spent more than two hours at the Warrior Center, interviewing inmates, visiting a dormitory, and learning about Oklahoma's correctional system.

Prof. John Coward, who organized the prison visit, hopes the project will help both the students and the inmates.

"For the students, this is an opportunity to learn about an aspect of society most people known little or nothing about," Coward said.

"For the inmates," Coward added, "this is a chance to talk about their lives and what they have experienced in and out of the legal system."


Above: TU student Jamil Malone listens to an inmate's story during a visit to the Warrior Center in Taft.

Below: Communication student Amanda Kliner talks with a prisoner at the women's prison in Taft, Okla.