Talk:Changing Lives Through Literature

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Tasks edit

Add images
- Waxler, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Background
- United States imprisons more of its population than other countries
  - Why?
- What is the purpose of incarceration? (Trounstine & Waxler 2005)
  - Punitive approach to criminal justice may not be an accurate model for reducing recidivism rates
- Why is recividism a problem? Why not build more prisons?
  - Cost, turnstile justice
- Is rehabilitation a myth? How can you restore an offender to a life that they never had to begin with?
  - Waxler argues that it is a democratic process; offenders find their voice for the first time through the characters
- Do criminals choose a life of crime? If given the opportunity, can they make better choices? Will they make better choices that result in more happiness for themselves and others?
  - Unknown if nature or nurture, probably combination of both; studies suggest that offenders who participate in the CLTL program are less likely to reoffend.
- Elimination of Pell grants for prisoners in 1994. (Price 2009)
Program
- Philosophy
  - Understanding through literature
  - Not therapy, the process can be therapeutic
  - Team concept: student, facilitator, probation officer, judge
  - Themes, difficulty of material, subjects, characters, application by gender
- Eligibility requirements
  - Opponents of CLTL are concerned that violent criminals will be released into the public through CLTL, however they are not eligible for the program
  - Criminals convicted of drug possession, property theft and fraud OK?
- Gender segregation
  - Approved by participants and professors (Carroll)
- Environment
  - Importance of academic location; most offenders had never visited a college campus
  - Courts and states
    - 13 to date
      - Add Judge Kathleen Sloan
    - Missing Canada program

Teaching methods and techniques
- Go-Round
- Identification
- Small group discussion
- Questions

Studies, findings, and conclusions
- Only one peer-reviewed study to date.
- Multiple evaluations indicate lower recidivism rate.
  - Jarjoura & Krumholz (1998)
  - Kelly (2001)
- Evidence is encouraging, but not widely accepted by the criminal justice community.
  - Paradigm shift required
- Speculation: implications of the work of Richard Davidson and new research on neuoplasticity suggest that the bibliotherapy approach may actually change the way the brain operates and result in better treatment outcomes. If it is possible. as Davidson demonstrates, to train the mind to be happy, it follows that it is possible to train a criminal to make better choices that results in happier outcomes. Evidence? None yet. Legitimacy of bibliotherapy as "brain training" not established. See slow reading and Darwinian literary studies: "Dissanayake, Joseph Carroll (Literary Darwinism 2004), and Denis Dutton (The Art Instinct, 2009) all argue that the arts help organize the human mind by giving emotionally and aesthetically modulated models of reality. By participating in the simulated life of other people one gains a greater understanding of the motivations of oneself and other people. The idea that the arts function as means of psychological organization subsumes the ideas that the arts provide adaptively relevant information, enable us to consider alternative behavioral scenarios, enhance pattern recognition, and serve as means for creating shared social identity."

Opposition and criticism [1]; Barker, 2010; Trounstine & Waxler, 2005
- Opposition POV is based on a strict punitive approach that supports a stronger criminal justice system and sees CLTL as a weakening it. Anti-CLTL oppose public funding and early-release initiatives, preferring to keep hardcore criminals locked up. Supporters of the program note that violent criminals like sex offenders are not eligible for CLTL. Opposition to CLTL tends to ignore the eligibility requirement, often claiming that CLTL will result in more violent criminals on the street, and points to previous "arts" programs that led to the release of murderers who went on to kill again, or rapists who were released and went back to raping again. However, there is no connection between CLTL and these other programs.
  - The Cheshire, Connecticut, home invasion murders case has attempted, somewhat unsuccessfully, to blame books borrowed from the prison library for giving Steven J. Hayes the idea to commit his heinous crimes. A crackdown on books available to inmates is now underway.[2]
  - Feldman 2001

Errata edit

There is a discrepancy in the sources as to when Jean Trounstine started the women's program.
- 1992, Jablecki (1998).
  - I think this is solved. 1992 is correct. (Trounstine & Waxler 2005)
Although it is not confirmed, it appears that the online archived NYT article with the title "Using Steinbeck, Hemingway and Others as Parole Officers" was originally published as "From Literature, the Inspiration to Give up Lives of Crime", although it is possible they are two separate articles.
- Confirmed. Two different versions were published in print: National Edition (B8) and Long Island Edition (B10).

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