Explanation:
1.
Richard Shelton, a poet and professor at the University of Arizona, has been coming into prisons as a volunteer most every week since the early '70s, when a convicted murderer on death row wrote to ask for feedback on his poems.
Shelton get started with the workshops at first he was a volunteer because before there is a prisoner in the death row who wanted an opinion on his poems so that is where Shelton agreed and he seen the guy's poem and thought why doesn't he do a workshop for other prisoners so they can express themselves.
2.
Shelton teaches the men how to write properly. He also teaches the inmates attitude toward language, and that if you can learn to use language honestly, then you can apply it to yourself honestly. He teaches them to see themselves in a different light than before.
3.
The workshops give the men a sense of belonging. It gives them a purpose in life, other than just being criminals and prison inmates. The men acknowledge that Shelton is hard on them, and they appreciate how straightforward he is, because they aren't going to get better without it.
4.
No, Shelton does not think about the crimes that the men have committed because he does not want to. He does not seek the information on the inmates crimes, because he has taught himself not to judge them based on their crimes, but on themselves and their individuality.
5.
Workshops like this are beneficial to the inmates because it teaches them how to use the language honestly and how to apply it to themselves. The workshops also open up their lives so that they have an avenue for understanding compassion, through the things that they read and hearing other people read, and learning how to take criticism, and have that be for some other reason than to just degrade you.