Courtesy of PBS
On Thursday, Jan. 29, Lewis & Clark hosted a screening of the documentary “Classroom 4.” The film, which was shortlisted for Academy Awards consideration under the Best Documentary Short Film category, follows LC Professor of History Reiko Hillyer, and her class, The History of Crime and Punishment in the United States.
Notably, the class is part of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. The program, which was started in 1997 at Temple University, seeks to provide college classes that can be taught within prison, with classes having a mix of both incarcerated and non-incarcerated students. The class featured in the film was taught at Columbia River Correctional Institution in Portland and was comprised of half incarcerated students and half non-incarcerated students.
The project came to be through collaboration between Hillyer and the film’s director, Eden Wurmfeld, who are childhood best friends. Initially, Hillyer said the film sought only to capture bits and pieces of the class as a sort of personal documentation. However, by 2023, the amount of content gave way to a 39-minute documentary made for wide release.
The film depicts a handful of weekly class sessions over the course of a semester. As the semester unfolds, the incarcerated students share more about their own, often emotional, personal experiences within the criminal justice system as class discussions unfold on concepts ranging from masculinity to prison abolition and mercy.
In the final few classes of the semester, the emotional connection between the students increases and the film becomes much more vulnerable. The film concludes on this moving note, lingering on the relationships formed within the classroom and the sense of mutual recognition between students that developed over the course of the semester. As the final credits roll, viewers are left with a portrait of education not merely as instruction, but as a form of connection — one that momentarily dissolves the boundaries between inside and outside, student and teacher, and leaves behind a quiet but lasting impact.
Hillyer spoke on a panel held after the screening alongside three formerly incarcerated students now on the outside: Nick, Israel and James. The group discussed more about their experience within the Inside-Out program.
For Nick, the process of taking the class and interacting with his peers fostered a sense of vulnerability that he says is hard to come by in prison.
“It was a pure joy to take that class after almost 16 years of incarceration. You don’t have those moments. It’s always guard up, never show emotion other than anger or happiness. Being vulnerable and in a position like that was refreshing. It gave us an opportunity to let our guard down, to show the world that we’re more than just a number or another statistic,” Nick said.
James expressed a similar sentiment, indicating that the class felt like a personal liberation for him.
“This class really just transformed me. I’ve been out since October, and I hit the ground running, just doing everything I can, waking up at seven in the morning, focusing on groups, classes, just everything I can do, and also having the great honor and privilege to be here and be involved with the Inside-Out program as a free person is just amazing. Every inside student in that course, you didn’t get to see everyone, but every inside student in that course was able to be vulnerable and actually cry, which, like Nick was saying, you don’t do that. That’s not something you’re allowed, really, you don’t want to be vulnerable. And it just is kind of hard to explain the weight that lifts off of you being able to express yourself without judgment,” James said.
James also added that following his experience in Hillyer’s Inside-Out class, he became a teaching assistant for that very same class the next time it was offered and took an additional five Inside-Out classes. He now says that he is discussing with his parents the possibility of attending LC in the near future.
For Israel, the class represented a real opportunity for him after having limited educational experiences earlier in life.
“Growing up a first-generation American, I grew up having to work to help the household out at a pretty early age, so education wasn’t really in it for me,” Israel said.
Along with getting his GED, Israel says taking the class gave him the confidence to pursue his education further. Since his release in September, Israel has started taking courses at Portland Community College.
Hillyer underscored the significance of classes like her Inside-Out course in fostering critical thinking and collaboration across differences.
“Inside-Out and the classes like this are my favorite thing that I do on every level, because it’s bringing together different forms of knowledge, different kinds of people, and actually challenging our basic assumptions that we’ve been conditioned to and trying to practice what it is to make a better world, a different world, while training ourselves with academic and analytical knowledge as well as lived experience. And just hearing this is just so incredibly moving,” Hillyer said.
For those interested in taking the course, it will be offered again in spring 2027. LC also offers additional Inside-Out courses in literature, poetry, art and more. For those interested in watching the film, it can be watched for free through PBS.
About the Author
