By Meg Dunn, CNN

Indianapolis (CNN) — Debra Des Vignes spent more than a decade as an on-air news reporter in small markets across the US. For most of that time, she covered crime.

It wasn’t until later that she realized she didn’t know the full story of the people she was covering.

“We only had what law enforcement told us. I always wondered, but it was such a fast-paced environment,” Des Vignes said. “It’s not that I didn’t care, but we didn’t have time to learn more about his or her background.”

Des Vignes had always wanted to volunteer at a prison to better understand the people behind the stories she covered. The opportunity came in 2017 when she met a co-worker whose husband worked for the local prison.

Des Vignes volunteered to teach a victim impact class, which is intended to help offenders see the consequences of their crimes from the victim’s perspective.

“I think society has that image of TV and movies and what that represents, and how a criminal is supposed to act or behave with a chip on their shoulder or angry,” Des Vignes said. “I found the exact opposite.”

During the course, Des Vignes decided to stray from the curriculum and have the inmates write a letter to their victim. Des Vignes said she witnessed these men open up in ways they hadn’t before and write some very impactful letters.

“There was a lot of raw talent in that room,” she said.

That class inspired Des Vignes to start her own nonprofit to focus on writing with incarcerated individuals. In 2018, the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop was born.

‘Fuel to do better’

Des Vignes’ 12-week creative writing program originated in one Indiana prison and has since expanded to eight correctional institutions across Indiana, Alabama, and Illinois. For Des Vignes, spending time with prisoners has humanized the crime stories she once covered.

“With this work, learning their stories and where they come from, puts it all into perspective,” she said. “It doesn’t make me feel bad about my reporting back then, but I realize the humanity of living.”

The curriculum, developed by Des Vignes and her all-volunteer team, provides incarcerated students with a foundation in creative writing through weekly prompts and introduces fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and playwriting. For Des Vignes, the goal is to create a sacred space where they can write and openly share.

“Some may want to make sense of their past, some may want to spend the hour and a half in a positive environment,” Des Vignes said. “And some may just want to be heard and felt seen and welcomed.”

For Jordan Dabbs, who is serving a 10-year sentence at Putnamville Correctional Facility for drug-related charges, this weekly class is a space to work through his troubled past after the loss of his mother, father, sister, and brother.

“[I] came to a crossroads and had to make a decision whether I was going to use that as a crutch and let that hinder my growth or use that as fuel to do better and get myself out of the situation I was in,” Dabbs said.

For students like Dabbs, this class offers them an outlet to work through trauma in a group setting. Participants share their work with the class, which allows them to not only get feedback from classmates and instructors but also to create bonds.

“I look forward to my Friday afternoons more than most days,” Dabbs said. “For two hours a day, everyone can just truly be themselves. We’re like a little small-knit family here.”

Value beyond prison walls

The impact of the program comes from more than just writing. For Chris Lewis, who was formerly incarcerated, this course helped him find compassion in prison.

“One of the hardest things to hold onto is your humanity, and then somebody looks right down the middle and says, ‘Man, that’s a human being.’ That means the world to you,” Lewis said. “When Deb came in, she just [saw] us as human beings.”

To date, more than 250 incarcerated people have completed the program, Des Vignes said. While this work is having a positive impact inside prisons, Des Vignes has also seen it spread far beyond prison walls.

“One prisoner said he was able to write more personal stories to his son to rekindle that father-son relationship that had been lost because he had the courage to write and express,” Des Vignes said.

For Des Vignes, who is a single parent with a full-time job, running this program is a labor of love that she hopes to keep growing.

“It’s given my life meaning, purpose,” she said. “It’s like a calling, and I don’t want to waste a second doing it.”

Want to get involved? Check out the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop website and see how to help.

To donate to Indiana Prison Writers Workshop via Pledge, click here

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