Journal of Prison Education and Reentry Vol
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Vol 5 JOURNAL OF No 2 PRISON 2018- 2019 EDUCATION & REENTRY Dialogue for researchers & practitioners Artwork by M. Nguyen, Courtesy of CSUSB Community-based Art from the archive, “Beyond the Blue: Prison Arts Collective” Journal of Prison Education and Reentry Vol. 5 No. 2, 2018-2019 FEATURE Lead Editor’s Welcome Editor’s Welcome Cormac Behan Lead Editor, University of Sheffield This letter welcomes you to the Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (JPER) Volume 5 Issue 2, the second half of our first volume in our new home on the Virginia Commonwealth University Library plat- form. It was fitting that JPER was launched on 13 October 2014, which has been designated by the Council of Europe as the International Day of Education in Prison. As an international journal that welcomes contri- butions from around the globe, the Journal of Prison Education and Re-entry will continue to facilitate the collaboration of researchers and practitioners in prison education through the publication of a variety of papers exploring the theory and practice of prison and correctional education. We began Volume 5 Issue 1 with a vignette, “The Hidden Heritage” by Thom Gehring, detailing the rich tradition of prison education and penal reform. Thom’s vignettes remind us of the work done by prison educators and prison reformers throughout our history. ‘The Conduits and Barriers to Reentry for Formerly In- carcerated Individuals in San Bernardino’ by Annika Anderson et al. considered the challenges of re-entering society and community. Using a sample from San Bernardino county callers using United Way’s 211 Reentry Call Center, they found that the callers have intersecting, disadvantaged identities and require multiple ser- vices, which suggests a need for collaboration across agencies. They found that human needs resources (i.e. housing, clothes, and food assistance) and legal assistance are the two most frequently requested services. In the paper, ‘Identity, Discourse, and Rehabilitation in Parole Hearings in the United States’, Danielle Lavin-Loucks and Rachel Levan adopted an ethnographically informed conversation analytic approach to address one tactic prisoners utilize to appeal to a state parole board for release – claiming rehabilitated status. They found that prisoners appealing for parole attempt to establish, in a performative space, their identity as ‘rehabilitated’. The study was used to address how individuals manage, assert, and negotiate identity in the course of this interaction. In the paper ‘Realist Model of Prison Education, Growth, and Desistance: A New Theory’, Kristine Szifiriset al. offered a new insight into the relevance of desistance theory and understanding of prison sociol- ogy to the lives of men engaged in education whilst in prison. Using a realist review method (Pawson, 2002b; Wong, 2013a), the paper articulated three inter-related CMOs (context-mechanism-outcome configurations) that were grounded in prison sociology and desistance literature: ‘hook’, ‘safe space’ and ‘qualifications’. In their review of the literature, they took a targeted view of relevant fields to identify the most relevant evidence base for (or against) the three CMOs under scrutiny. They identified a stronger evidence base to support the ‘safe space’ and ‘hook’ CMOs than for the ‘qualifications’ CMO. Silvia Lukacova and colleagues in ‘Prison Education in Slovakia from the Teacher’s Perspective’ dealt with teaching practices in prison education in Slovakia. The research sought to find out in what ways, in the view of the teachers, prison education and school education differ and how they react to the differences. As is the case in many jurisdictions, it found out that the absence of teacher training for prison education and the power of the prison regime strongly affect teaching practice. However, the teachers adjusted the syllabus, the pace and demands placed on the learners according to the conditions of the prison regime. The authors believe Correspondence:Cormac Behan, Email:[email protected] (Accepted: 15 November 2018) ISSN: 2387-2306 doi: https://doi.org/10.25771/ e4gn-5m39 Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Behan/of Prison Education and Reentry 5(2) 98 that the present study sheds more light on teaching practices in prison education and helps recognize such areas where specific teacher training is needed. June Edwards’ review of ‘Prison Pedagogies: Learning and Teaching with Imprisoned Writers’, edited by Joe Lockard and Sherry Rankins-Roberson, highlights for those who work in prison education the constant grapples with the challenge of making our classrooms relevant, welcoming and creative. Edwards concluded that this book was a fascinating collection of essays exploring a range of pedagogical practices that support writing as a form of self-development and cultural resistance. The final paper in Volume 5 Issue 1, on ‘Demographic Variations in Achievement Goal Orientations among Prisoners on Formal and Vocational Training in Uganda’ by Irene Aheisibwe and Aloysius Rukundo, examined why, despite the introduction of free prison education, prisoners in Uganda have lower formal and vocational skills compared to the general population. The study found statistically non-significant differenc- es in achievement goal orientations across all the demographics. The main conclusions include the need to deepen prisoners’ knowledge on setting various achievement goal orientations to help them in information acquisition and engagement in learning; support goal orientations equally regardless of age, gender, religion and level of education; and achievement goal orientations that allow academic social comparison among learners, which results into richer academic engagement. It recommended that teachers/ instructors in prison education use achievement goal orientations to improve prison education programme through measurement and evaluation of learning outcomes, choosing appropriate methods of instruction and instructional materials, and in helping learners to choose achievable and realistic goals. We look forward to 2019 and our second issue of JPER Volume 5. You will also find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/#!/JournalofPrisonEducationandReentry). Please join the conversation as we en- deavor to build our journal together. I appeal to all those involved in prison education and learning to consider writing a research paper, contributing examples of best practice, writing a book review or updating us on poli- cies, to make JPER the primary source for prison education and reentry. I look forward to working with prison education researchers, prison educators and learners inside as we embark on a new phase of our journey. Journal of Prison Education and Reentry Vol. 5 No. 2, 2018-2019 FEATURE A Note About the Cover Art My Choice of Weapon, 2017 M. Nguyen Oil Pastel 16” x 20” “Beyond the Blue” is a traveling exhibition of over 100 works of art created by incarcerated individ- uals participating in weekly arts programming through the Prison Arts Collective (PAC). The artists included seek to transform their lives through art and aim to shift society’s stereotypical image of ‘inmate’ or ‘prisoner’ by sharing their personal expressions and common humanity. “Beyond the Blue” opened at CB1 Gallery in Los Angeles in June 2017 and has traveled to additional venues, including Homegirl Cafe in Los Angeles, with scheduled visits throughout Southern California galleries and museums through 2020. Along with the exhibition, the PAC has organized a series of panels on Art and Restorative Justice which seek to examine a variety of issues and considerations surrounding the experience of incarceration. The Prison Arts Collec- tive is a project led by California State University, San Bernardino, professor, Annie Buckley, which facilitates weekly programs in eight California state prisons and will expand to twelve institutions by 2020. The PAC’s multidisciplinary arts classes are led by a collaborative team of teaching artists, university students, and peer facilitators. The program also offers a comprehensive Arts Facilitator Training program for incarcerated indi- viduals that want to grow as leaders and mentors. The PAC is supported by Arts in Corrections, an initiative of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California Arts Council. Correspondence: Annie Buckley, Email: [email protected] (Accepted: 4 September 2018) ISSN: 2387-2306 doi: https://doi.org/10.25771/m6gw-jj88 Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Journal of Prison Education and Reentry Vol. 5 No. 2, 2018-2019 FEATURE--HISTORICAL VIGNETTE Mettray by THOM GEHRING California State University, San Bernardino, USA In 1840, near Tours, France, jurist Frederick Auguste Demetz founded Mettray, a family substitute institution for juveniles. Before opening Mettray, “Demetz trained 27 assistants for. .seven months.” (Eriks- son, T. [1976]. The Reformers: An Historical Survey of Pioneer Experiments in the Treatment of Criminals. New York: Elsevier, 1976, p. 102). The institution was known as a school and employed teachers. Its curric- ulum consisted of “religion, philosophy, physics, chemistry, mathematics, French, Latin, Greek, German, En- glish, writing, book-keeping, drawing, and music. .” (Eriksson, 1976, p. 122). Mettray students were “from more or less wealthy social backgrounds,” and