A year-end letter to our readers
Posted: December 23, 2012 Filed under: CLTL | Tags: alternative sentencing, changing lives through literature, CLTL, criminal justice, literature 1 Comment »
Nancy E. Oliveira, blog editor
Dear Readers,
As we approach the end of 2012, let’s take a moment to reflect on this year’s successes—big and small—of Changing Lives Through Literature and other alternative sentencing programs.
Our purpose
We are the official blog of Changing Lives Through Literature (CLTL)—an alternative sentencing program “based on the power of literature to transform lives through reading and group discussion,” as well-stated on the official CLTL website.
The main purpose of the Changing Lives, Changing Minds blog is to support CLTL. This blog provides a place to discuss:
- CLTL and other alternative sentencing programs that reduce criminal recidivism or change lives for the better—share news, concerns, successes, difficulties, and ideas
- Literature—recommend stories that inspire; talk about literary events that enlighten
- Criminal justice reform and other relevant criminal justice topics of today—discuss what works and what changes still need to take place
A milestone reached: 200 posts
We reached a milestone this year—we published our 200th post. Please continue to join us as we embark on our next 200. Also, while CLTL has been around since 1991, this blog turned four years old last month. Let’s look forward to the next four years and beyond.
Thank you
Thank you for contributing your thoughts, experiences, and insights to this blog. Also, thank you for reading it! We hope you find its content meaningful and valuable.
A call to action: share your 2012 success stories
We invite you to share your CLTL (or similar program) successes of 2012. We encourage you to use this blog to share your answers to any of these questions:
- How did your CLTL group or similar program succeed in 2012?
- What breakthroughs were experienced?
- What piece of literature did you or someone in your program find most inspiring?
For shorter comments, please use the leave a comment link at the top of this post and enter your reply. For longer comments, or to include images, submit up to 700 words to cltl@umassd.edu for publication on this blog.
We also welcome your thoughts on what you’d like to read on this blog for the upcoming year.
Again, thank you for helping to make this blog, CLTL, and similar programs a success.
Sincerely,
Nancy E. Oliveira
Editor of Changing Lives, Changing Minds—a Changing Lives Through Literature blog
Photo taken by JoAnne Breault.
Starting a conversation about online degrees
Posted: December 16, 2012 Filed under: criminal justice, Uncategorized | Tags: criminal justice, e-learning, online degree 7 Comments »Editor’s note:
The author of the abbreviated article below presents his case for enrolling in online degree programs and speaks specifically about online criminal justice programs. Because many of you who read this blog work in criminal justice, I ask you to submit your comments regarding this topic.
A question to get the discussion started:
Compared to traditional criminal justice degree programs, do you think online criminal justice degrees provide a comparable level of preparation for criminal justice careers?
I look forward to your comments.
–Nancy
A case for criminal justice e-learning
By Stephen Strings
A proper education is highly esteemed most anywhere in the world. Attaining a degree is regarded as a major achievement and this creates better chances for you to land a job. However not everybody gets selected in local institutions of higher learning and this has rendered many jobless. The good news is that there is online learning.
How online education is favourable
Online education has many advantages. If you have a job already and wonder if you can enroll in a criminal justice degree successfully and still work, you have nothing to worry about—online degrees are very flexible. Another great advantage is that you get to interact with other people who have different frames of mind and you can challenge yourself.
An online criminal justice degree is good for you because you get to study forensic science criminology and so many other interesting and exciting topics. When you do this online you get to meet people and network which increases your chances of getting a good job. When you take up an online degree, you are taught by staff who are dedicated and the best of the best.
Cross boarders and expand your horizons by enrolling in an online criminal justice degree.
Stephen Strings is a blogger who works for online degrees provider E Degree USA. He loves to write articles and blogs on online education. He has covered a variety of topics like online criminal justice degrees, business degrees and more providing tips and suggestions to students worldwide.
Voices from the Table: Ken
Posted: August 19, 2009 Filed under: bibliotherapy, CLTL, criminal justice, incarceration alternatives, literature | Tags: changing lives through literature, CLTL, criminal justice, ex-offender, interview, participant 4 Comments »
Allan McDougall is a graduate student from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Allan is a staunch believer in language as social action, with a focus on reading and writing. Allan is currently writing his MA thesis on Changing Lives Through Literature, and writes about professional and academic issues on his blog: allanmcdougall.wordpress.com.
This essay is the first in a series of three posts written by Allan McDougall based on interviews he conducted with CLTL program participants.
Built in Boston’s densely populated inner city, the Dorchester men’s CLTL program is by far the largest, graduating a cohort of 37 men last year and requiring a staff of eight, including two English professors (Taylor Stoehr and Bert Stern), three to four probation officers, a judge, and two former program participants. The class meets for ten weekly sessions of ninety minutes each and uses Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of an American Slave as a primary text.
Ken is a graduate from that large cohort who promptly arrived to meet me at the Dorchester District Courthouse to cover for a last minute interview cancellation.
When asked about his experience in CLTL, Ken particularly appreciated the feedback he received on written assignments:
[CLTL] opened up my way of thinking a whole lot differently. I found myself writing about stuff that I wasn’t even thinking about. And the more I wrote, once I started writing I couldn’t stop. . . Taylor, when he used to give us comments, he said I got a knack for [writing]. Now I want to write my own autobiography one day . . . [Taylor] gave me a lot of input and he gave me some places where I can go if I want to go to school, you know? Like, who to contact for loans or whatever . . . after you graduate you get this booklet, when they read it, they was like, wow man you got some talent . . . [Taylor and Bert] knew I had a real talent in writing, and Taylor he really made me feel good, his comments . . . I felt real good about myself after that.
When asked whether or not CLTL changed his opinions of other people, Ken recalled being struck by a story the presiding judge told during a group session:
‘Dead by 25, So Who Cares?’ Anticipated Early Death and Youth Crime
Posted: July 22, 2009 Filed under: criminal justice, juvenile | Tags: children, city, crime, criminal justice, death, juvenile, timothy brezina, violence 4 Comments »
Timothy Brezina is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Georgia State University. He has published numerous studies on the causes and correlates of youth violence and delinquency. This post summarizes his latest research study, titled “Might Not Be a Tomorrow: Anticipated Early Death and Youth Crime”, co-authored with Volkan Topalli and Erdal Tekin, and forthcoming in the journal Criminology.
“I saw my first dead body when I was five, man. It was my uncle. Some crackhead stabbed him straight in the eye. Blood all over,” recalled a young offender of his earliest childhood memories.
Many people would have difficulty comprehending the pervasive violence that young people confront in our nation’s economically-deprived, inner-city communities. A survey of school children in inner-city Chicago revealed that nearly one-quarter had witnessed someone being killed. In a similar survey of public high school students in inner-city Cleveland, one-third reported that they had been shot or shot at.
How do these experiences with violence affect the social, emotional, and educational development of young people? What does it mean to witness killings at an early age and to attend the funerals of other young people? What impact does it have on their sense of a future, and on their willingness to engage in risky behavior, including crime?
To gain answers to these questions, I teamed up with key research colleagues at Georgia State University, including Drs. Volkan Topalli and Erdal Tekin. A portion of our research involved in-depth interviews with “hardcore” offenders from the streets of Atlanta. We wanted to learn, as best we could, how the world looks through their eyes, and how their perceptions and beliefs affect their decisions to pursue crime. For the purposes of our research, we regarded our offender interviewees—drug dealers, robbers, and carjackers—as the “experts” on criminal decision-making.
Our interviewees typically reported long and early histories of violence. Many had been shot or stabbed and bore visible scars of physical trauma. They also expressed what criminologists refer to as a “coercive” worldview; in their eyes, they occupy a dog-eat-dog world where it is acceptable if not necessary to use force to intimidate others and to prevent victimization.
In the words of one offender: “In my neighborhood, it’s rob or be robbed. I prefer to be on the robbing end.” He explained to us how he had learned to rob people effectively (e.g., how to immobilize victims and catch them off guard) from the experience of being robbed himself.
Cheap Justice
Posted: July 1, 2009 Filed under: CLTL, criminal justice, incarceration alternatives | Tags: changing lives through literature, CLTL, criminal justice, economy, justice, pew center for the states 8 Comments »
Maeve Hickok is a writer and the managing editor at www.Earthzine.org, an online scientific and environmental journal, supporting the Global Earth Observation System of Systems.
Imagine President Obama holding a news conference to announce a federal buyout that would actually save taxpayers billions instead of costing taxpayers billions. And this buyout would not only save taxpayers money, he would say, but improve the quality of millions of American lives as well.
Wouldn’t that be something?
Well he could do that if the states—we, the voters and taxpayers—adopted the recommendations of the Pew Center for the States and redesigned the criminal justice system, which costs taxpayers $68 billion annually. We need to put more emphasis and financial support into “inexpensive” community-based intervention and remediation, and less into building more “expensive” prisons, and legislating stiffer penalties for non-violent offenders.
So why haven’t we done this already—don’t we see this as just common sense? Apparently not, explains the Pew Center, which points to dramatic increases over the last twenty years in prison population and construction, and in widely divergent judicial and corrections policies. State-by-state analyses show our corrections systems are our second largest expense after Medicaid.
Changing Lives through Literature is one of those “inexpensive,” community-based programs that should be part of the President’s plan, but more on that later.
Lost Souls Gaining the World
Posted: May 30, 2009 Filed under: CLTL, criminal justice, incarceration alternatives, literature | Tags: changing lives through literature, CLTL, criminal justice, identity, jail, prison 3 Comments »
While studying for the ministry, David G. Sarles began substitute teaching in the New Haven public schools and have been teaching since. He began running also then, up and down East Rock, and has been running more or less since then. But his running pales in comparison to those inmates who circle prison yards thousands of times to compete in marathons.
Last December, the high school writing class I teach read the CLTL post on “The Real Cost of Prisons.” One of these graphic stories was about a 15 year-old busted on a drug charge. It moved the students; however, they were anything but shocked. “Oh, yeah,” said Jermania, “That is just like my sister’s friend who got caught just talking to a friend who turned out to be a lookout. She’s in a juvenile home.” Delphine remarked, “Kids on my block are always offering me stuff.” Others replied with stories of crack houses, dealers, and runners they know from their exurban Long Island towns, most of them middle class communities.
They see some of their acquaintances getting sent up but can’t know what life behind bars is like. How much can those behind bars relate to prison life when they are back on the outside? The writing class can tap into the CLTL site and read and relate to the stories posted. Reading and discussing one of CLTL’s stories, Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” offers Delphine and her writing classmates an impression of what it’s like to fail to resist tempters. CLTL blogs provide a glimpse of writers who work with those who walk the line between the streets and prisons.
It’s all but impossible, it seems, for the bars to disappear for prisoners. One of our role models, the photojournalist Taryn Simon, documented lives of exonerated prisoners in her book The Innocents. Simon’s eye into the lives of former prisoners, many from maximum security prisons, piqued the interest of my writing class. How can those returned to society after years of time served for crimes they did not commit know what to do in life on the outside?
Making a Difference
Posted: May 13, 2009 Filed under: CLTL, juvenile, literature, reading | Tags: changing lives through literature, CLTL, criminal justice, juvenile, literature, reading 1 Comment »
Kelly DeSouza is an English teacher and mentor at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School. She is the mother of two beautiful children and lives in Lakeville, MA.
I have had many positive experiences with facilitating Changing Lives Through Literature groups in the juvenile drug court. These experiences are all the direct result of listening and connecting with the adolescents in the group; in doing this, I have not only listened but heard the students express what is important to them.
Enter sixteen-year-old Amelia. This past CLTL group was her third time participating and it was completely voluntary. She was an active participant and missed only one class, because she was moving back home. Amelia said, on more than one occasion, “We need more programs like this. It really helps.” Her sincerity is reflected in her not being required to attend the class; nevertheless she was a faithful participant.
Erin is another sixteen-year-old girl who also thought we needed more programs. She enjoyed the book we read, The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin. The book was about an unfit mother and her three children. As part of our writing assignment, the class wrote letters to their moms expressing everything that they are thankful for. Erin is fluent in American Sign Language and had always been uncomfortable publicly signing to her mother. At our CLTL graduation ceremony, Erin signed the thank you letter she had written to her mom as it was being read.
Yolanda is a thirteen-year-old who absolutely loved our class. She was always getting into trouble at school, but always shined in our classes. Yolanda often said she wished English at school was like this. Unfortunately, Yolanda was locked up before our graduation; the first thing she did was call a lawyer to ask if she could be placed in the next class when she is released. Stella Ribeiro (probation officer) and I are looking forward to her return.
The teens that we work with have multi-faceted problems: drug and alcohol abuse, truancy, poor home lives, gang involvement, peer pressure, and many other issues present in today’s society. For three hours, every week, the students are able to liberate themselves from the challenges of their world; how do they escape? Many would not believe the answer–literature.
I don’t think the students like the class because of the books we read, but rather what the books provide. We read, journal, and discuss; this is the key to getting through to the participants. The characters from the pages suddenly become real people that we can analyze and learn from. We have had many healthy debates, learned from the students, and they from us. The classes offer a safe environment because we are all there for the same reason. Students aren’t graded, judged, or tested but are appreciated. The focus is on them, their insight into the literature, and how situations are applicable in today’s world. It is a safe way to discuss options and choices with only hypothetical consequences.
I had a wise professor who used to speak of “the journey” as being more important than the end. The Changing Lives Through Literature class is an important journey for our youth; it is the catalyst that will transport them from where they have been to somewhere they didn’t think was possible, or know exists.
San Quentin Film School
Posted: April 3, 2009 Filed under: criminal justice, documentary | Tags: criminal justice, documentary, film, jail, prisoner, san quentin film school 2 Comments »
Start watching the first episode of San Quentin Film School above and visit here to continue it in its entirety.
Matt Kelley, Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and Change.org blogger, recently told his readers about the new Discovery Channel series, San Quentin Film School.
He writes :
The series, on the Discovery Channel, is an immensely watchable and moving portrait of life behind bars and a window on the potential for inmates to change through creative expression.
The full series can be seen here on YouTube. It’s cable TV so there’s some sensationalizing of prison life, but compared to COPS and CSI this show is a ray of light. The producers of “Paradise Lost” shopped the idea to two dozen prisons before San Quentin officials expressed interest. If only programs like this were replicated in prisons and jails across the country, we could reduce recidivism by showing prisoners that we care about their success and that there are countless paths to creative expression and productive work.
San Quentin is a leader in innovative programs like this – partnerships with nonprofits that improve the lives of prisoners and help in their successful reintegration into society. The Prison University Project has provided university education at the prison for 13 years and has inspired countless similar programs around the country.
Check out “San Quentin Film School.” If you like it, write to your state’s Department of Corrections and ask them if they do anything like it. Pressure from the outside can make things happen behind bars.
Underdogs in the Monster Factory
Posted: April 1, 2009 Filed under: criminal justice, incarceration alternatives | Tags: criminal justice, incarceration alternatives, resolve to stop the violence, sunny schwartz 2 Comments »Sunny Schwartz is a nationally recognized expert in criminal justice reform and the founder of Resolve to Stop the Violence Project (RSVP) which was awarded the Innovations in Government Award, sponsored by the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University and the Ash Institute. Sunny is also the author of Dreams from the Monster Factory: A Tale of Prison, Redemption, and One Woman’s Fight to Restore Justice to All
I was raised on the south side of Chicago and so should have been a White Sox fan, but my heart gravitated to the loveable losers of the north side, the Cubs. Later, when I moved to San Francisco, I gave myself with equal passion to the Giants. Like the Cubbies, they have failed to win the big one year after year and yet I stay devoted. I am like this in the rest of my life, too: I root for underdogs.
I work in the jails of San Francisco County, and my clients are thieves and wife beaters, drug dealers, gangbangers and murderers—underdogs, every one of them. They are a group of Americans, we’ve all recently learned, whose numbers have been growing by leaps and bounds. The Pew Study for the States found that 1 out of every 31 people in the United States is either behind bars or on parole or probation. 1 out of every 100 is locked up.
This is a vast number of people abandoned to society’s scrap heap. There are lots of names for this place: the big house, the slammer, and the joint. I think the best name is monster factory. In the typical monster factory, men are housed in cells on long tiers, where they have nothing to do. They sleep in their bunks, play dominoes and cards, watch the Jerry Springer show on TV, and scheme. They scheme about how to steal someone’s lunch, how to pull one over on the DA, how to score drugs and how to get even with whoever crossed them. They make shanks out of mops, pens, and metal shards broken off their bunks. The strongest thugs are allowed to terrorize the weakest. These monster factories epitomize a wasted system that has failed our needs and expectations.
And they are wildly expensive. Disturbingly, the Pew study found that spending on corrections is growing faster than any other line item in state budgets. But despite the spending increases, recidivism rates haven’t moved an inch, hovering somewhere around 70 percent. “There is no other business in the world,” one corporate attorney told me, “that gets an increase in their budget when they have a seventy percent failure rate.”
For far too many years, we have been content to keep the problems out of sight and out of mind, throwing money at the problem by building more jails and prisons, and incarcerating more and more people. But our global economic crisis has brought the issue to a head. Without change, the correctional system faces collapse.
No Exit?
Posted: March 28, 2009 Filed under: CLTL, criminal justice, incarceration alternatives, reading | Tags: CLTL, criminal justice, incarceration alternatives, jail, prison, race, schools 8 Comments »
Anthony Farley is Associate Professor of Law at Boston College Law School. Anthony Paul Farley is an expert on Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, and Legal Theory. Farley is also an affiliated professor with the Graduate Department of Sociology and African & African Diaspora Studies at Boston College.
Over two million people are imprisoned in the United States. Most of them are black. This is slavery in a new form, as is the scandalous quality of the educational resources meted out to the heirs of Brown v. Board of Education. The attack on freedom and the attack on literacy are, of course, related. Among the many thousands gone the way of incarceration are few, very few, who ever had the experience of a decent school.
Many, far too many, of our urban schools resemble prisons. Visit one of these schools and you will see how dreams are killed at an early age. Dreams are killed by educators who do not love the children they have promised to educate. Dreams are killed by an educational-industrial complex that creates conditions that make such love impossible to imagine. Dreams are killed as an ever-greater color-lined nation abandons the twin dreams of education and emancipation altogether.
Failing schools produce illiteracy just as surely as failing prisons produce recidivism. The failure of these two institutions seems always to escape serious examination. In the Antebellum South, the dream of the literate slave was always emancipation, just as the dream of the emancipated slave was always literacy. Reading and freedom have always been connected in the minds of former slaves and former slave masters in the United States. Witness the trials and tribulations of Frederick Douglass in his struggle for both mental and physical liberation, for freedom from both illiteracy and the plantation.
Our schools fail. Our prisons fail. The former produce illiteracy, while the latter produce recidivism, and both kill dreams of an emancipated future in the United States. When institutions fail year after year, we must re-examine what we mean by failure. When the reformers respond to this year’s failure with last year’s failed solutions, we must examine what we mean by reform. These failed prisons, these failed schools, and all these failed and endlessly recycled reforms actually succeed in continuing the color line’s division of the United States into two nations: black and white, separate and unequal. And there seems to be no exit from this cycle of failure.
What is to be done?
We should turn the prisons into schools.
