Peep this article about a program exploring the development of reading groups as an alternative to incarceration in The Guardian.
The Guardian details a pilot program in Exeter in which probationers are offered the opportunity to enlist in a guided literature discussion course modeled after the American Changing Lives Through Literature, the project of two UMass-Amherst professors and a New Bedford probation officer. The article indicates that of the Massachusetts program’s participants from 1991, “only 19% reoffended compared with 42% in a control group.”
Other USA CLTL programs operate in Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas. The CLTL website describes a Texas class developed by Rice University lecturer Lawrence Jablecki:
Discussing the stoic philosopher Epictetus, for example, Jablecki might first point out Epictetus’s apparent belief that we are all actors in a play, living out the role assigned us the best way we can.
“Should we conclude then,” Jablecki might ask, “that Fate rules our lives? That we have no other purpose? That we cannot reason for ourselves?”
And then he waits patiently for the responses.
“When I was drunk I got in a bad accident,” one probationer says, as if trying to explain Epictetus’s point. “God kept me unharmed.”
“So Epictetus is right?” Jablecki then challenges.
“No,” the probationers insist. “We do have choices. We make stupid choices maybe, mistakes, but we can make choices,” they all seem to agree.
The English program is still gathering quantitative data about literature and recidivism. We’ve discussed why people in positions of authority should be directed to read literature–but what about the fringe members of society? Are the inmates who opt-in to these groups really transformed by the power of reading, or does self-selection confuse the results–are the people who choose a literature course already less likely to run afoul of the law for a second time?
