PBS Shines National Spotlight on ‘Classroom 4’

A national audience recently got a window into one of Lewis & Clark’s most transformative classrooms. On November 25, PBS broadcasted the award-winning documentary Classroom 4 as part of its acclaimed POV American Documentary series. The short film, which has already earned several film festival honors, is also available for free streaming on the PBS app.

Classroom 4 takes viewers inside the Columbia River Correctional Institution (CRCI) in Portland, where incarcerated students and Lewis & Clark undergraduates meet weekly over the course of a semester to study the history of crime and punishment in the United States. The Inside-Out course—which is part of the nationwide Inside-Out Prison Exchange program—meets, fittingly, in Classroom 4 at the facility. There, students explore ideas of justice, mercy, and the evolution of the carceral state. What emerges is not only a study of history but a shared experience of humanity.

The course is taught by Reiko Hillyer, professor of history and department chair. Hillyer began teaching Inside-Out courses in 2012, a year after completing training through the Philadelphia-based program. Since then, she has taught the CRCI class every other year, guiding mixed cohorts of “inside” (incarcerated) and “outside” (college) students through lively weekly discussions and shared assignments. Each class usually includes 30 students—15 from CRCI and 15 from the college—who meet behind prison walls to learn, debate, and reflect as equals.

“The point of the class,” Hillyer says, “is the power of human connection. It takes very little to dissolve walls, stereotypes, and fear.”

The film places viewers directly in that space, offering “a fly-on-the-wall perspective” of students building trust and community across physical and social divides. “Outside audiences can relate to the friendships that form between inside and outside students,” Hillyer notes. “The class helps break down the walls that prevent us from seeing each other for who we truly are.”

On November 25, PBS will broadcast Classroom 4 as part of its acclaimed POV American Documentary series.Directed by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Eden Wurmfeld, Classroom 4 was filmed during the spring 2023 semester. The crew’s approach was careful and unobtrusive. “[The cinematographers] were like dancers,” Hillyer recalls. “They made it possible to forget they were even there.” Students later reflected that while they are constantly monitored in prison, the presence of the film crew felt unusually respectful—creating an atmosphere that allowed for vulnerability, honesty, and deep connection.

One incarcerated student from the 2023 class shared in the film that the experience was highly impactful. “That class changed my life and the way I thought of myself,” he said.

Classroom 4 has already received major recognition. It won the Jury Award for Documentary and a Special Mention at the Oscar-qualifying Aspen Shortsfest, and it was nominated for Best Short Documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. The Aspen jury praised the film as “remarkable for its bold and truthful exploration and confrontation of the prison industrial complex—and its effects on all of us, both inside and out … a testament to human resilience, courage, and hope.”

Hillyer’s work inside CRCI has also inspired her scholarship. Her recent book, A Wall Is Just a Wall (Duke University Press, 2024), explores the evolution of prisons and incarceration in the 20th century and was named an Oregon Book Award finalist. “Mass incarceration persists in part because the people who are locked up remain invisible,” she writes. “Projects like this class ask the public to reckon with both the human agency behind and the human cost of the prison system.”

With support from the Mellon Foundation, Lewis & Clark has expanded its Inside-Out offerings to include five additional trained faculty members, making it possible to offer one course per semester. The courses are now a popular staple of the college’s curriculum.

For Hillyer, the enduring lesson of Classroom 4—both the class and the film—is simple: education can cross any boundary. “We take prisons for granted,” she says, “but when we meet across those walls, we begin to imagine a different kind of justice.”

This story includes reporting by Hailey McHorse BA ’25.

Classroom 4 is available for screenings at schools and at social justice organizations: contact classroom4film@gmail.com to arrange a screening. The film is also being shared with incarcerated individuals across the country through the nonprofit Edovo, which brings educational content to 1,100,000+ incarcerated people across more than 1,400 correctional facilities, representing over 50 percent of all incarcerated people in the United States.

Inside-Out Prison Exchange History