Literacy news

Reading courses as an alternative to prison

22 Jul 2010

In Texas offenders are being sent on reading courses instead of prison.

One example is Mitchell Rouse, who was convicted of two drug offences in Houston. The former x-ray technician then faced a 60 year prison sentence – reduced to 30 years if he pleaded guilty – but was instead put on probation and sentenced to read. Five years on, Mitchell is free from drugs, working as a building contractor, and reunited with his family. He describes being sentenced to a reading group as "a miracle" and says the six-week reading course "changed the way I look at life". He says:

"It made me believe in my own potential. In the group you're not wrong, you're not necessarily right either, but your opinion is just as valid as anyone else's."

Rouse is one of thousands of offenders across America who, as an alternative to prison, are placed on a rehabilitation programme called Changing Lives Through Literature (CLTL). CLTL is the brainchild of Robert Waxler, a professor of English at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Repeat offenders of serious crimes such as armed robbery, assault or drug dealing are made to attend a reading group where they discuss literary classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Bell Jar and Of Mice and Men.

Of the 597 who have completed the course in Brazoria County, Texas, between 1997 and 2008, only 36 (6%) had their probations revoked and were sent to jail.

A version of the programme called Stories Connect is running in a handful of prisons in Britain with some success, and in Exeter it has recently moved out into the community for people with drug and alcohol problems. Mary Stephenson, a writer, who runs Stories Connect, says more funding is needed. To date, in Exeter, 96 people have been through the programme, but of these only 29 completed the course. This, she says, is largely due to the chaotic lives of the participants, many of whom are battling with drug problems, and the fact that the groups are not an alternative to prison, which removes the main incentive.

There are plans, again subject to funding, for the University of Exeter to run a research project into the effectiveness of the programme in the UK, both inside prisons and out. But until then, there are no quantitative results that prove the programme reduces reoffending.

Next week, Stephenson is attending a roundtable meeting with Prisons and Probation Minister Crispin Blunt, at which she will make the point that the programme could be achieving so much more.

"In terms of tackling reoffending, we need both more funding and the political support to explore it. There's no doubt among the people I've worked with that the success in America could be repeated here."

Read more at The Guardian. 

Tags: Adults, Prisons, Social inclusion, Young People

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