A group learning intervention was carried out with a group of women incarcerated in a Texas state penitentiary. The author found that empathic practices typically learned and employed by female inmates in prison are limited to those containing a strong cognitive component. On the other hand, the logic of practice that developed within the research-driven learning group was one involving empathic practices with a strong affective component. The repertoire of possible empathic practices available to participants was thus expanded to include these alternatives. It is speculated that a program such as the one developed by the research team would better prepare participants for the variety of social relationships in which they engage in the “free world.”
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