ABSTRACT
I didn’t want to. When Molly Birnbaum asked me to teach in Wesleyan’s Prison Education Program1 at the Cheshire Correctional Institution, I found the idea intimidating. I had long believed in work with prisoners and had done some. But this seemed just too serious a commitment. I pled too busy. Birnbaum, one of two graduate fellows at Wesleyan University to start up the new program, would not give up. Eventually, I said yes. It was the right decision.
