Prison Reform Project

5 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This 5-credit course is intended for a small number of passionate and highly motivated students. The class will not have readings, papers, or exams. Instead, students will spend an intensive semester as investigative journalists, documentarians, and social justice activists, with the goal of creating a public documentary (in addition to a website and social media campaign) that makes the case for the innocence of a wrongfully convicted person who is currently languishing in prison. Students will reinvestigate the original crime and conviction, and their task will be to portray the main issues, challenges, injustices, and human stories involved in each case. The course is co-taught by Professor Marc Howard and his childhood friend, Adjunct Professor Marty Tankleff, who was himself wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for almost 18 years before being exonerated. Previous versions of the course have resulted in the exoneration and releases of Valentino Dixon, Eric Riddick, Keith Washington, Arlando “Tray” Jones III, Kenneth Bond, Muti Ajamu-Osagboro, and, most recently, Terrel Barros, while also providing significant progress in the legal prospects of several other potential exonerees who may be released in the future. The class is scheduled for Fridays 9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Students must keep their Fridays open, free from other classes or regular commitments. Students also will be regularly meeting and working together within smaller groups and consulting with the professors on other days of the week throughout the semester, as it aligns with their schedules. The output for the course—which will be prepared by five groups of students working closely together in teams of three—will include the production of short documentaries that are humanizing portraits of the lives, families, and complicated legal cases of five people who were likely wrongfully convicted. At the end of the semester, the students will present their final documentaries at a larger public event hosted by the Prisons and Justice Initiative. <>br> The course will be restricted to a maximum of 15 Georgetown students. Priority will be given to those students who have a strong academic or practical background in this area, along with a passion for the issue of wrongful convictions and criminal justice reform. Having a background in investigative journalism and/or video production is a bonus, but not a requirement. The enrollment process for this course will take place before live registration begins. Students who are admitted into the course will be automatically enrolled by the Registrar before the start of the live registration process.