The Institute of Politics (IOP) suspended a student-led writing workshop at the Cook County Jail (CCJ), a cohort of its Bridge program, for the rest of the academic year after multiple participants allegedly violated jail policies, the IOP confirmed on May 10. The other two cohorts of the program will continue through the end of the quarter as planned.
“Before volunteering, each student [in Bridge] must sign a form acknowledging that they understand the codes of conduct inside each facility. We have suspended programming for one of our Bridge cohorts for the remainder of the academic year after representatives from Cook County Jail informed us that multiple student volunteers violated the jail’s codes of conduct,” IOP Director of Communications Koran Addo wrote in a statement to the Maroon. “We are meeting with students to determine the extent of what occurred and possible next steps.”
In the Bridge program, students lead creative writing and civic education programs for people incarcerated at the CCJ and the Illinois Youth Center youth detention facility.
Last fall, two students in the CCJ writing workshop, fourth-years Ethan Ostrow and Harley Pomper, were denied their security clearances to enter the jail after they wrote an op-ed for the Chicago Sun-Times criticizing restrictions on inmates’ access to paper. In March, they sued Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, alleging that this violated their First Amendment rights. They later sought a preliminary injunction allowing them temporary access to the jail for the remainder of the academic year; their request was denied.
A May 7 court filing by Dart opposing Ostrow and Pomper’s motion for a preliminary injunction said that multiple students in the CCJ creative writing cohort, including Pomper, had called or texted detainees from outside the jail and had provided detainees with their personal contact information, in violation of agreements they had signed before participating in the program.
The response also specifically accused Pomper of “attempting to set up an extra-procedural grievance system outside of the knowledge or control of the [Cook County Sheriff’s Office], in which detainees call an answering service controlled by Pomper with their complaints,” as well as passing messages between inmates in violation of the jail’s policies.
Ostrow and Pomper told the Maroon they could not comment immediately, citing the pending lawsuit.
Dart’s filing included an April 30 email from Purvi Patel, the IOP’s director of civic and campus engagement, to the executive director of the sheriff’s office confirming the cancellation of the CCJ writing cohort for the rest of the academic year. She wrote that the IOP would work with the jail over the summer “to determine a course of action for the following academic year,” adding, “That will include any updates to our [Memorandum of Understanding], our programming commitments, and training and onboarding for our volunteers.”
