[This is not my official proposal, but it’s enough to get one started if they want to do their own.]
This proposal requires minimal assistance and can be scaled to adjust from one single participant to the entire population of any DOC.
Some variation of this proposal will soon be submitted to the Idaho Department of Correction in effort to address and meet the following needs of their Close Custody and Restricted Housing Unit residents: 1) the need for opportunities to engage in constructive behaviors; 2) the need for positive reinforcement and encouragement from peers and unit staff; 3) the need to explore relationships with community partners and peer support networks prior to being released from prison. An emphasis must be placed on need three’s importance, as those who are released with their sentences terminated are much less likely to be referred to resources for crisis intervention than those who are released under the Department’s supervision.
Note: Among my peers this program is referred to as a project. Because the word “program,” in prison, comes with negative connotations, and because Idaho prison programs are not known to be inclusive; they tend to only accept participants that match a certain criteria.
This project aims to be open to Everyone.
The pilot was conducted for $150: $100 in books, $50 in correspondence — with book donations resulting from correspondence.
Those who are incarcerated with access to a library can pilot their own version for no cost at all.
Here’s how it works:
One reads through materials with restorative properties — therapeutic, educational, explorational, etc.– and then reflects through reports how the materials affect them. Having internalized and extrapolated in the name of convalescence, they then pass the product on to their case manager, asking them to file it as a signal that they’re being productive. Once filed it remains in their record to be referenced in the future for interviews and hearings (disciplinary, Board, Ad-Seg, worker, classification, program, etc.).
Below is an example of one of my reports.
—
Patrick Irving 82431
8-13-21 08:48
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
This book was donated by idahoprisonproject.org, to assist with the reflective reading program I’m piloting from Ad-Seg.
Finding it important to absorb as much perspective as possible, I can say that I very much valued this 1963 bestseller, “written as two letters but best read as essays,”* by a Harlem-raised, civil rights warrior. His critical examinations, ranging from society to the Church to the Black Panther Party, were passionate and insightful and presented without anger. For me, this book illustrates the danger of propelling generalizations and, quite brilliantly, frames the anguish of what a spiraling nightmare it is to be the victim of rationales used to justify indignities — whether it be those who’ve survived cell B54 at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, or those who’ve found themselves drowning in a system of arbitrary constructs used to promote love with hate and waste away the human resource.
Possibly not a read one would expect from me, the way that I’ve been labeled in IDOC computers. But that’s only because the Department’s never asked whether I come from a friendly, refugee-hosting, agnostic/church family, or how far we’ve gone out of our way to welcome Vietnamese, Congolese and Rwandans into our home.
Definitely a read I’d recommend to my peers.
—
Of the materials below, chosen for my trial, several were donated by a Dean’s List university student studying in Idaho to work for Probation & Parole. Others were purchased upon suggestions from behavioral health specialists and IDOC CARES grant recipients. A forum of justice-affected families and their proponents also contributed recommendations, several of which were picked for the peer support component: having been shared among their group already, the group is prepared to encourage their loved ones to read and discuss the materials they recommended. Yet more contributions came from idahoprisonproject.org, a Christian radio program that addresses incarceration and reentry, multiple prison book programs, the author’s friends and family, a South Carolina poetry review, and one Princeton University Associate Professor.
Not listed are books from my facility library, as this author was punitively restricted from accessing all library materials for a period of 90 days during the course of this trial.
The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz
Prisons and Prison Life: Costs and Consequences by Joycelyn M. Pollock
Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison by Bruce Western
Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys by Victor M. Rios
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté, MD
Where to Draw the Line: How to Set Healthy Boundaries Every Day by Anne Katherine M.A.
The Soloist by Steve Lopez
The Girl in My Wallet by Teresa Nickell
We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For: The Promise of Civic Renewal in America by Peter Levine
Civic Activism Unleashed: New Hope or False Dawn For Democracy by Richard Young
Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction by John Monaghan & Peter Just
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradbury and Jean Greaves
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
The PTSD Workbook by Mary Beth Williams Ph.D., LCSW, CTS and Soila Poijula Ph.D.
Wife After Prison: Caught in the Aftermath by Sheila Bruno
Asheville Poetry Review by Various Authors
The Everything American Government Book by Nick Ragone
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Automating Inequality by Virginia Eubanks
The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America by Naomi Murakawa
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler
ADDITONAL NOTES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
DOCs may wish to consider incentivizing staff to become familiar with program participants and selected materials, so as to engage in brief yet thoughtful exchanges that help one reflect and further expound.
Case managers should introduce their caseload to this project with an “optional” reading list and simple set of instructions. Instructions should encourage also logging reads not on the list. Case managers should be given a shelf or a box for selected materials, so that they and not the library are responsible for meeting requests. Case managers should be encouraged to engage in brief yet thoughtful exchanges while collecting returns and delivering materials.
Discussion groups should be encouraged but not required.
Peer and staff reviews should also be encouraged but not required, so as to help expose the simplicity of the program and percolate interest among populations socially. A simple signature on a submission would suffice as a review. But it doesn’t matter who the signature belongs to, or if they actually reviewed. What matters is the interaction that takes place during the signing helps to expose and normalize the project, seeding future participation and discussion among peers.
DOCs already working closely with peer support, community networks are encouraged to solicit participation and support, suggestions and feedback.
Program participants, including staff, should be permitted to contribute materials to the program. This with the understanding that a voting, lottery or review system may need to be implemented to choose which contributions will be stored in the space allotted for their materials.
All questions, critique, and comments are welcome.
*Quotes belong to the peer that contributed the book.
“All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands”
–Sufjan Stevens