‘Teaching to a captive audience’ May 7

HOOD RIVER — Hood River County Library will host a book reading and conversation with local author and educator Lois Colton about her new memoir, “Teaching to a Captive Audience: Reflections from a Prison Educator” at 6 p.m. on May 7 at the Hood River Library, 502 State St.

Whenever Colton shared in social settings that her job was teaching adult men in the hidden world of a maximum security prison, everyone had questions. Side conversations around her would quiet, heads turned in her direction and all ears were open to hear the compelling stories she told about her prison classroom and the challenging predicaments that she sometimes faced being a rare woman working inside a 2,000 man prison. People wanted to know what teaching inside of the prison was like and about the diverse population of adults in custody who lived there.

“My work gave me an intimate view into an unknown terrain,” Colton said, “and I often felt like a documentary filmmaker when I told my stories and painted for others the scenes I saw everyday in the prison.”

Though most Americans are only vaguely conscious of the long arm of the criminal justice system, having 2.5 million of our citizens locked up in prisons affects everyone, said a press release.

“I never planned on having a 20 year career as a corrections educator,” Colton said. “But from my first day teaching inside what I discovered to be the hidden city of Oregon’s oldest maximum security male prison, I knew I was where I was supposed to be.” 

The essays in “Teaching to a Captive Audience” combine personal anecdotes of the prison classroom with poignant stories and facts about the complexities of living life inside a large prison. The essays ask hard questions from a probing observational perspective and weave a web of passion about teaching and learning generally and about being a female teacher to men confined in a maximum security prison specifically.

“Prisons can be dark places that impact everyone who lives and works within their walls,” Colton said, “but Teaching to a Captive Audience is not another book about the horrors of prison. Rather, my focus is on the human side of incarceration.”

Colton was twice voted as Corrections Educator of the Year in North America’s Region VI for the international Correction Education Association, and was selected to help design and train professional development modules for adult educators around the state. She is now retired and lives in Hood River.

Books will be available for purchase. The event is free and open to the public.