“This is Part of my Final Grade”: A LatCrit Critique of Prison Tours as Pedagogical Tools in Criminal Justice Education

Abstract

The proliferation of criminal justice programs brings new pedagogical challenges for educators who look for innovative ways to help students build lasting connections between theory, research, and practice. Prison tours are a well-known experiential learning practice in criminal justice courses. Educators have emphasized the benefits of using prison tours in providing students with first-hand knowledge of the criminal justice system, but critics have questioned their educational value, and the subjectivity of students’ personal experiences are rarely considered. In this article, I use LatCrit to problematize the use of prison tours as pedagogical tools in criminal justice courses, focusing on my status as a Latinx scholar and educator. I combine counter-story telling and autoethnography to highlight my own prison tour experience. I question the educational benefits of prison tours and discuss the potential harms they can cause Latinx students who have previously come into contact with the criminal justice system.