The power of possibility found in Idaho’s prisons and elsewhere

While pursuing the possibility of turning prisons into spaces for education, Omi Hodwitz has been a key witness to some very powerful results while helping guide the University of Idaho’s Prison Education Initiative (PEI), which is in its second year of operation. 

Eight University of Idaho faculty members, each specializing in their own field of research, presented their individual findings in a back-to-back series of three-to-five-minute speeches in front of a nearly full crowd gathered in the Vandal Ballroom. This event was UI’s first POPTalks, the acronym representing the “power of possibility.” 

Hodwitz, a UI professor whose presentation earned her the first place prize from the audience’s collective vote at the conclusion of the event, started her presentation by describing the present circumstances of crime in our country and, more specifically, in Idaho. 

“We only have 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners,” said Hodwitz in reference to the entire United States. “Most years, [Idaho] ranks in the top three in prison admissions and prison populations. More than 10,000 Idahoans are currently residing in our state prisons, mostly for victimless crime. So, in other words, we are a mass incarceration state in a mass incarceration country.” 

Hodwitz, during her speech entitled “The Power of Possibility in Prison: Finding Potential in Unlikely Places,” demonstrated how the PEI had been the beginning of a regionally focused and effective solution that’s helping to dissolve the larger problem of mass incarceration. 

In short, the PEI allows campus-based students the opportunity to offer in-person assistance to incarnated students who are working on completing their own coursework. When getting an education like this is accessible to people living in prison, it cuts the reoffending rate nearly in half and can drop even more depending on how advanced the education being offered is. 

The special sense of collaboration between these two groups of students is something that can be fully appreciated after hearing some of the achievements they’ve accomplished together. 

“These two unlikely sets of students have published books and peer-reviewed articles together,” said Hodwitz. “They have collaborated on research projects, and some of our campus-based students are presenting this research at international academic conferences.” 

In its beginning stages, UI’s PEI had been granted to receive Pell funding in 2021 for two prisons in Idaho: a men’s one in Orofino and a women’s one in Pocatello. Now, The PEI has plans on expanding to the largest prison in Idaho located in Boise. 

Aside from Hodwitz, Jason Barnes was the first to present his POPTalk titled “There’s a Dragonfly in my Primordial Soup!” He talked about Titan, a giant ice moon currently orbiting Saturn, and how if its ocean core (comprised of 10 times more water than all Earth’s oceans combined) ended up mixing with its carbon atmosphere, an exciting possibility would potentially arise: the development of new life. 

Shelley McGuire followed Barnes with her nutrition-centric presentation called “The Perfect Food: The Power of Personalized Nutrition.” Essentially, McGuire showed the audience how breast milk acts as the perfect source of personalized nutrition for infants and how her research discovered that COVID-19 could not be passed to an infant via breastfeeding. In fact, she found it contained beneficial antibodies that’d help fight an infection. 

The concept of Afrofuturism was then introduced by Sydney Freeman Jr. during his POPTalk titled “Black to the Future: The Creation of a Thriving and Flourishing Campus Community.” Utilizing narrative centered around the lives and perspectives of black students set in the year 2035, Freeman Jr. painted an engaging picture that included moments of joy, success, and belonging for black students as they began to participate in and expand the plethora of opportunities and activities available at UI. 

“You do what for a living? The life of a large-mammal ecologist” was next in the lineup and was delivered by Ryan Long. Having worked with big land animals throughout his career, including both big horned sheep in North America and kudus in South Africa, Long recounted some of the things he’s learned and the benefits he’s found while being able to conduct his research in the wild alongside his students. 

Renee Love, whose work deals with 13,500-year-old mammoth bones found in Southeastern Idaho, discussed various extinction hypotheses and introduced some of the conclusions her research has found in a POPTalk called “Ice Age Idaho: Addressing the Mammoth in the Room.” One of the most interesting things Love has discovered is that the bones come from a Jeffersonian Mammoth, a hybrid between the more popular Woolly mammoth and the lesser-known yet more common Columbian mammoth. It is and has been the only set of its kind to be found in Idaho. 

Brian Johnson followed Love and delivered his speech titled “Secure and Reliable Renewable Electric Power.” Johnson described UI’s history of active involvement in developing the Northwest’s power systems, and how his research aims to improve the protection and security of those systems as technology becomes more advanced. 

Lastly, Jaap Vos concluded the event with his POPTalk, “Ch-Ch-Changes! Tracking Population Dynamics Across Idaho.” Vos collected Idaho driver’s license data and analyzed land ownership patterns to better understand Idaho’s demographics. He found that not only is Idaho the fastest-growing state, but Idaho is “changing much faster than it’s growing.” According to Vos, this means that one out of every three Idahoans didn’t live in the state 10 years ago. POPTalks was a captivating event for both students and community members alike and helped to exhibit the power of possibilities within numerous walks of life. Having been a positive and well-attended performance, it is a hopeful assumption that a second reiteration will return next year. For those who might have missed their chance to attend the POPTalks, a recording is expected to be published by UI at an indefinite time.  

Herman Roberts can be reached at [email protected]