Transformation Programmes

Articles about prison programmes whose objective is to transform the prisoner.

Murderers turned peacemakers

from the article by Laurel Kaufer on Peace X Peace: How is it that women, with dark pasts, serving time for murder and manslaughter, could possibly become honored peacemakers? Their story is one of personal commitment to themselves and the community in which most are destined to live out their lives. “This is an environment filled with conflict and violence. There is a dire need and want for change,” says Susan Russo, one of the fifteen initial peacemakers, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at the largest prison for women in the world, Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, CA. “Mediation interests all of us because we are lifers and long-termers hoping to make a difference in teaching our peers that there is a better way.” Beginning her quest in 2007, Sue Russo wrote over 50 handwritten letters from prison to mediators all over California. Her letters went unanswered until August of 2009 when one of her letters made it to me, Laurel Kaufer, Esq., a Southern California mediator and peacemaker and founder of the post-Katrina Mississippi Mediation Project.

Sycamore Tree: Week 3

from Penny Parker's blog entry on Penny and Prison: A week with huge expectations: we have three visitors coming with us. Ann (not her real name) a young lady, victim of a robbery, whose car was violently attacked while she was in it and whose bags were stolen and Ray and Vi, whose son Christopher was murdered by a gang of violent youths high on alcohol and drugs. Ann and Ray and Vi are effectively surrogate victims for the men - a taster, in a group, of the experience of a victim – offender conference or mediation.

Give prisoners the chance to help the community

from Erwin James'commentary in the Guardian: "I want to be out there, helping people," says one prisoner in the report, who could have been speaking for many of those I met while serving my own 20 years of prison time. ....Probably the best such experience was when I joined the Braille Unit in my first long-term high security prison. The 12 of us who worked in the unit had all been convicted of murder and for most of us it was first time in our lives that we had experienced the satisfaction that can be gained from helping other people. The prison held more than 700 of the most serious offenders in the country, but the only official opportunity for any of us to put something back into the outside community that we had harmed so badly were those 12 places in the Braille Unit.

Victim impact programming in corrections: A team approach to reducing recidivism

from the note by Verna Wyatt in The Wall: At first glance, it might seem counter-intuitive for victim advocates to work with inmates. However, the truth is, victim advocates and corrections professionals are not adversaries. We actually share a common goal: “no more victims.” Conducting Victim Impact classes for the incarcerated is a team approach to preventing victimization. There have been several studies looking at the effectiveness of victim impact programs across the country. A Iowa Department of Correction report, using two evidence-based studies, concluded victim impact is a contributing factor in reducing recidivism. [You Have the Power (YHTP)] developed our own Victim Impact Curriculum based on our experience as victim advocates. We’ve learned from our class participants that the majority of offenders never think about their victim as a human being. Many never even think about their victim at all. One of our offender participants told us, “I’ve been incarcerated for over twenty years, and I never once thought about my victim until this class.”

Restorative justice and the challenge of prison reform

from Brian Steels' recent paper: Crucially, prisoners have to learn to accept responsibility for the harm their criminal activities have caused to individual victims, family and neighbourhood. This largely transformative component is implemented at the beginning of any given prison sentence and is maintained throughout the term of custody. ....Wherever practical and possible, prisoners are made responsible for any financial compensation owed to victims. To this end, a restoration fund may be established and prisoners able to earn money in order to pay victim compensation. This encourages a degree of responsibility in prisoners whilst providing reparation for victims.

Restorative justice for people who are innocent & wrongfully imprisoned

from Lorenn Walker's blog: Recently, I saw how successfully RJ was used by someone who has steadfastly maintained innocence, and who does not take responsibility for the crimes she is in prison for. The woman is serving several life sentences for crimes that she has denied since being convicted after a trial about 20 years ago. She was 18 when she went into prison and she has not seen two of her now adult children since then. Most of her children want a relationship with her and she wants one with them. The woman learned about restorative justice in a course we provide* in the prison, and she used an RJ process to focus how she could restore her relationship with her children, and address the harm caused them and herself, by her teenage drug use and her imprisonment.

Prisons, rehabilitation and justice

by Lynette Parker Recently, I read an article about the struggles faced by the state of Florida after the US Supreme Court banned sentences of life without parole for juveniles who do not kill anyone. In the discussion over the need to revisit cases and re-sentence the offenders, one retired judge was quoted: “There are no resources in prisons for rehabilitation,'' the former judge said. ``You give him 30 years, and he'll get out when he's 45, what's he going to do? Re-offend. Some people, regardless of their age, need to be put away forever.”

APAC: Brazil’s restorative justice prisons

from Lorenn Walker's entry on Restorative Justice & Other Public Health Approaches for Healing: APAC’s approach is opposite to most prisons. Instead of making the people incarcerated in them feel bad, guilty, and like failures, APAC works to make people feel worthy, respected, and able to restore their lives. APAC gives people hope that they can contribute something to help others and that they can be of service in some way, no matter what their situation. APAC’s restorative approach begins with the name it uses to refer to the people who live in these prisons. Instead of calling the people inmates or prisoners, APAC calls the recuperandos because they are “people in the process of rehabilitation.” The late Insoo Kim Berg, co-founder of solution-focused brief therapy, would have loved this name recuperandos because she recognized the importance of language and how our labels influence behavior and our experiences.

Lessons in transformation: "You gotta smile at the little f…ers"

By KIm Workman Last night, Maori Television screened the first of a two part programme dealing with the issue of family violence and child abuse. ‘Tamariki Ora - A New Beginning’ was a defining moment for Maori. It showed Maori men acknowledging that the abuse they received as children, turned them into abusers of their own children. But it also showed the extent to which whanau (families) are acknowledging the issues, forging their own solutions, and actively working within their whanau and the community to encourage positive, loving relationships. I recall in my own marae (*meeting house) , less than 20 years ago, female elders defending a male elder who had sexually abused a visiting school child, as being a practise that was culturally acceptable in traditional times. We all knew that was nonsense, but no one had the guts to face the issue head on. Those days are now well and truly gone. I wept tears at the programme – but they were tears of joy. From this day on, no one will ever be able to say that Maori are failing to take responsibility for their own behaviour.

Norway builds the world's most humane prison

But how restorative is it? from William Lee Adams' article in Time: Ten years and 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($252 million) in the making, Halden is spread over 75 acres (30 hectares) of gently sloping forest in southeastern Norway. The facility boasts amenities like a sound studio, jogging trails and a freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits. Unlike many American prisons, the air isn't tinged with the smell of sweat and urine. Instead, the scent of orange sorbet emanates from the "kitchen laboratory" where inmates take cooking courses. "In the Norwegian prison system, there's a focus on human rights and respect," says Are Hoidal, the prison's governor. "We don't see any of this as unusual."

Ministering to sex offenders

interview by Saul Gonzales for PBS' Religion and Ethics: GONZALEZ: First started by Canadian churches in the mid 1990s, COSA’s work with sex offenders centers on small discussion circles that meet weekly. In the circles, four to six volunteers from the community are matched with one sex offender, called a core member. In this circle the offender is named John. JOHN: And I screwed up and I made some bad choices because I become careless and I become complacent, and that is something that anybody that’s in my situation cannot do. GONZALEZ: The circles are intended to get recently paroled sex offenders to take responsibility for the crimes they’ve committed and provide them material and moral support as they attempt to reenter the community. JOHN: I can talk about anything, anything. GONZALEZ: Anything. JOHN: Anything. I told them things about me that I wouldn’t tell my closest friend.

Ministering to sex offenders

interview by Saul Gonzales for PBS' Religion and Ethics: GONZALEZ: First started by Canadian churches in the mid 1990s, COSA’s work with sex offenders centers on small discussion circles that meet weekly. In the circles, four to six volunteers from the community are matched with one sex offender, called a core member. In this circle the offender is named John. JOHN: And I screwed up and I made some bad choices because I become careless and I become complacent, and that is something that anybody that’s in my situation cannot do. GONZALEZ: The circles are intended to get recently paroled sex offenders to take responsibility for the crimes they’ve committed and provide them material and moral support as they attempt to reenter the community. JOHN: I can talk about anything, anything. GONZALEZ: Anything. JOHN: Anything. I told them things about me that I wouldn’t tell my closest friend. (speaking to group at COSA meeting): I don’t want to get into debates. That’s not being helpful for the core member.

Innovator's Focus: Resolve to Stop the Violence

San Francisco's Resolve to Stop the Violence Project (RSVP) is a restorative justice crime prevention program that utilizes a peer-based job training model to reintegrate violent offenders into the workforce. RSVP offers intervention where people can learn to change their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors while addressing the isolation and polarization of those affected by crime including offenders, victims, community members, and law enforcement officials. (excerpted from the YouTube video description).

Dominican Republic: Losing freedom but not dignity

from Elizabeth Eames Roebling's article at IPS.org: There are 236 women here [new model women's prison in Najayo, Dominican Republic], part of a plan to convert the entire penal system in the Dominican Republic to correctional centres of restorative justice. That concept is broadly defined as institutionalising peaceful approaches to harm, problem-solving and violations of legal and human rights. These range from international tribunals like the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission to innovations within the criminal and juvenile justice systems, schools, social services and communities.

America's prisons: Is there hope?

The first step, persuading the San Bruno inmates to face up to their own violent behavior, would be the most difficult. What is particularly striking about violent men is how remorseless they often seem, as if they were devoid of feeling. Schwartz shows how their experience under the justice system only reinforces this sense of detachment. During their trials, defense lawyers coached them to deny or minimize their crimes. In jail, they spent their days complaining about the conditions, their sentences, the behavior of the deputies and other inmates, and society at large. At no time were the men ever required to assess their own behavior or acknowledge the pain they had caused.

Kim Workman: Communities of Restoration – Thinking Biblically, Speaking Secularly

For more than five years, Prison Fellowship New Zealand has run a 60 bed faith based unit at Rimutaka Prison, near Wellington. He Korowai Whakapono (HWK) is a 60 bed unit based at run in a partnership agreement between Prison Fellowship NZ (who provide the programmes staff, programmes and volunteers), and the Department of Corrections, (who provide the facilities and custodial staff.) It is a Christ-centred, transformational approach, based on a programme of spiritual teaching and prayer, with an emphasis on mutual accountability, and positive social engagement. Prisoners serving their last two years of a sentence can volunteer for the programme, which lasts around 18 months. Eight months before release, prisoners are matched with a mentor who will prepare them for release, and continue to mentor them for up to two years following release.

Workman, Kim. The Future of Restorative Justice – Control, Co-option, and Co-operation

This paper explores the history of restorative justice in New Zealand and lays out a course for the future.

Toews, Barb. Restorative Justice: Rebuilding Your Web of Relationships. A Collection of Reflections for People in Prison.

This workbook is a collection of restorative justice reflections that was used by the Pennsylvania Prison Society’s Restorative Justice Program. This collection includes an appendix with suggestions of ways to use the individual reflections as group activities. (excerpt)

Swanson, Cheryl and Summers, Chris and Culliver, Grant and Swanson, Cheryl. Creating a Faith-Based Restorative Justice Community in a Maximum-Security Prison.

Although most restorative justice programs take place outside of prison, there is a strong interest in bringing these programs into the prison environment. Various forms of victim-offender empathy and reconciliation programs have been introduced to incarcerated populations. Yet, efforts to implement restorative justice programs within the prison community creating a culture where conflict is resolved peacefully, are considerably less common. The faith-based honor dorm at W.C. Holman Correctional Institution in Atmore, Ala, is an effort to provide this programmatic environment. It not only aims to resolve conflict peacefully, it also has long-term objectives. This program works to create an environment in which inmates have space and opportunity to experience personal transformation. (excerpt)

Mace, Anne. Restorative Principles in the Prison Setting. A Vision for the Future

As Anne Mace observes, the prison population in England and Wales at the beginning of the new millennium is at record levels. More people are being sent to prison and for longer sentences. The experience of prison, however, has little about it that is likely to reduce re-offending after release, she contends. Hence, Mace proposes a new way to think about the aims of prison sentences and time in prison. Building on principles and practices of restorative justice, she argues for a comprehensive prison regime in which inmates would be enabled to accept responsibility for their lives and actions, undertake direct or indirect restorative actions for the benefit of victims or the wider community, and begin to restore their own lives, thus equipping themselves for renewed citizenship and life apart from crime.