Students in Louis Bourgeois’ literature class will study centuries of great writing from Camus, to Kierkegaard, to Richard Wright. The only difference between this class and a course at the nearby University of Mississippi, is that most of the 40 men signed up to take the class are death row inmates at Mississippi State Penitentiary, the only maximum security prison for men in the state. Though Bourgeois has been teaching classes at the prison — more commonly known as Parchman — since January of 2014, this is the first time anyone in the state of Mississippi has been allowed to teach in J-Block 29, where the majority of the state’s death row inmates are housed. The students, who are the most tightly guarded in the state, are allowed only very limited movement. Since the men are not permitted in the prison’s classrooms, the class will be taught from the very center of the unit with students still behind bars. The response among the prospective students has been overwhelmi...
Striving for a World without Capital Punishment