Changing Lives Through Literature: Can it Change Lives?
By Brian Sullivan

This paper will focus on a community counseling model called Changing Lives Through Literature (CLTL), which has had excellent results with isolated, disenfranchised clients who are court ordered to attend an alternative-incarceration center or placed on probation for various criminal charges. The program utilizes literature and group discussion in a college setting. This paper will be addressing the issues associated with this at-risk population. This program enables group participants the opportunity to discover self-awareness and insight into their behavior through reading and discussion. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a simple, relatively inexpensive program can have significant impact on the lives of isolated clients who feel as if they are on the outside of society's mainstream.

History

The concept of CLTL was the collaborative idea of Judge Robert Kane of New Bedford, MA, and Professor Robert Waxler of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, MA, in 1991. According to Federal Probation Officer Lawrence T. Jablecki's article in the Federal Probation, "Professor Waxler ventured a suggestion in the form of a daring challenge, namely, sentence some of those bad guys to me at the university and I will direct them to the transformative power of the humanities and great works of literature. Judge Kane accepted the challenge and the experiment of CLTL was born."

The essential premise of CLTL is that literature can help to provide group participants with insight and understanding of their behavior. Through 10 to 12 weeks of classes and discussions, clients are treated as equals in the group format. The group also includes a college professor, who acts as the group's facilitator, a judge, and a probation officer. The probationers who opt to participate in the groups have historically made significant strides in their behavior within their respective communities (Condon 131).

The classes take place at an area college campus. In his book, Changing Lives Through Literature, Robert Waxler writes, "I have always believed in literature, in its healing power, and in its ability to transform lives. I am not talking just about the words on a page or the book sitting peacefully on a shelf; no, that is not what I mean by literature. I mean something else, something that makes me part of the story that I am reading, or creating, or thinking about. Literature is always alive for me. It keeps me free." Waxler goes on to write, "... I approached my good friend Bob Kane, a district court judge, with the idea to try the experiment which would eventually become the CLTL program. I wanted Bob to take 8 to 10 criminal offenders appearing before his bench, headed to jail, and sentence them instead to a series of literature discussions that I would design and facilitate at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth."

Professor Waxler further writes, "For me, these reading groups became an exploration into the meaning of democracy. People who had been pushed to the margins and refused a voice began to rediscover their identity around that wooden table in the Dean's office. The judge and I also began to deepen our sense of identity as we stripped away the privileges that came with our institutional titles and roles and learned that, like the other men in the room, we too saw ourselves in the stories and characters we were reading about and discussing." Robert Waxler states, "I believe that stories can save us from the chaos of our lives, perhaps from death itself. When we experience the unfolding of a good story, we experience the unfolding of our own selves. We journey through language and discover our identity reflected there as if in a mirror. I am convinced that through these discussions, we have all learned to carry stories and characters around with us as we create a mythic place that brings us together. We have learned in the process that our lives are stories that we can create and shape" (3).

In her book, Shakespeare Behind Bars, Jean Trounstine writes about her experiences facilitating a drama group within the walls of a women's prison. She writes, "Change happens when we read a book and a character sits inside us and becomes a role model. Sometimes change is as small as an emotional half smile, the tilt of a head in response to a new idea." Presently, CLTL programs have been started throughout the United States and in Great Britain.

In the fall of 2002, the New Britain Alternative Incarceration Center (AIC) started a CLTL program at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, Connecticut. Five students were referred to the New Britain AIC by the court for minor criminal offenses. The college professor, Francena Dwyer, selected a number of short stories for reading and discussion. This was the first CLTL program in Connecticut, and it was very successful. The clients fit the description of a disconnected and disenfranchised population. By the last class, the AIC clients were talking about finishing high school and going to college.

Levels of Change

In the lexicon of the probation business, many of the clients feel disenfranchised, living isolated lives outside of the mainstream world that most of us exist in. The CLTL program seems to work on many levels to assist clients who feel as if they are living on the margins of society. Initially, clients are given a test to ensure that they can read at a minimum of an eighth-grade level. They then make a commitment to participate in the classes and the group discussions.

The probationers' payoff with respect to their sentences is usually a three-to-six month reduction in their probationary period. On this legal level, the clients are rewarded with a type of "good time" for successfully completing the program.

A key component of the CLTL program is the physical location of the classes on a college campus. The act of leaving one's own, many times depressing, home environment to travel to a college campus can be an extremely uplifting experience. Many clients never remotely considered the possibility of attending classes in a university setting with a college professor. Once again, echoing the theme of isolation, this club of academia is typically closed to them, if not in reality, at least in their minds. Robert Waxler talks about this concept when he states, "Many (of the offenders) are in a continuous present, in their own jail. They can't get beyond the self."

The clients who are in the program enjoy the college setting and seem to adapt to their new setting in a brief period of time. Speaking about the first class of students, Robert Waxler recalled, "The men stood out from the students in the way they dressed and carried themselves....after about three weeks, the men now dressed and walked like college students." In our first group, which ran at Tunxis Community College, one of our 16-year-old female students commented on the first day of class that she was "pure ghetto," the implication being that she did not belong on a college campus. This student brought a negative attitude and a vocabulary that was laced with obscenities. By the second or third session, she had a far more selective and appropriate use of the spoken word in the classroom setting. Additionally, her attitude was upbeat and she genuinely seemed to enjoy the group discussions. She is now considering college as a very real possibility after she completes high school.

The true magic of the program in terms of personal growth is the ability of clients to self-reflect through the literature and discussions. Robert Waxler said, "literature is a mirror" of our lives and our interactions with one another. Waxler writes, "After the first 12-week series of discussions, it was clear that the program was working. The men were reading to their children, talking about the stories to their girlfriends, thinking about continuing their education, and reconnecting with their families." Personal growth and self-discovery take place through identifying with the characters in the stories. Robert Waxler reported to Tom Condon that one client was "inspired by the endurance of Santiago, the aged fisherman in Old Man in the Sea, to keep out of the drug life" (B12).

On yet another level, the community makes strides by improving the lives of its citizens. Our professor at Tunxis Community College, Francena Dwyer, was quick to point out that having the class at a community college also served to further link the college with the community.

Statistically, participants in CLTL have a reduced recidivism rate, based upon new convictions. Tom Condon wrote, "A study of the men who went through the first four classes found that only 18 percent committed crimes again, compared with 43 percent in a comparable group of offenders."

The cost of each group is approximately $1500 to $2000. If a given group has 8 to 10 members, then the average cost of services delivered to each client is approximately $200. Compare this to the typical cost of incarcerating an inmate for one year in Connecticut, which is approximately $25000 to $35000. Obviously, on the economic level, the cost effectiveness of this program is immense.

CLTL as a community counseling model

The CLTL programs that are now in full operation in a number of states are an excellent example of the community-counseling model in practice. Clients are invited to attend the reading groups as a condition of probation or a condition of their release. Our clients represent an ethnically and economically diverse segment of the population. The CLTL model does have the limitation of reading levels, as clients who cannot read are not allowed to participate in the groups. Often the clients come from a difficult, isolated home environment and, as mentioned earlier, feel somewhat ostracized by the balance of society's members.

Lawrence T. Jablecki describes the typical felony probationer he works with in his capacity as a probation officer in Texas. Jablecki writes, "... he is an Anglo male between 17 and 26...young high school dropout, abusing himself with alcohol and/or drugs." This somewhat generic description of clients might be expanded to include females, African Americans, and Hispanics, specifically at the New Britain AIC. Most clients have not been convicted of an offense, as they are in a pretrial status. However, the problems they have encountered in their lives are universal for an at-risk, vulnerable population.

The CLTL program addresses individual needs through direct client services, through the literature. The clients are given the opportunity to grow through the journey of literature. The growth is individualized as each client will learn his or her perspective from the readings and hopefully, internalize a certain amount of positive changes. Indirectly, clients begin to expand their newly discovered fondness of literature to others in their lives. Robert Waxler stated, "One drug dealer was staying home reading, and reading to his child." Obviously, any program that inspires clients to read to their children has a greater impact than just the changes of the individual group members.

Many clients find themselves in various situations they view as threatening. For example, the probation officer typically sits behind a desk and informs the client what his or her obligations might be. The client feels powerless in this relationship, as he or she is being pushed around by another bureaucrat in a suit. This is not unlike the vice principal in high school or the judge in the courtroom telling the client, again from behind a desk, what was done wrong. The CLTL model removes the barriers of physical space (the very real barrier of the desk), titles, such as judge or professor, and powerlessness and lack of control over their own situation. Jablecki writes, "For criminal offenders, a judge traditionally represented the enemy, a criminal justice system that punished them. Ordinarily the image of a judge confirmed their alienation from the mainstream of society. The room is a college classroom with the discussion group sitting around a table or in a circle. The professionals in the group are group members, just like the clients. There is a democratic format utilized by the group, giving all members equal power. The group members are treated with respect and dignity in the group setting."

The direct community services include networking with others involved in the CLTL programs in various states and locations. Through correspondence, reading lists are exchanged, as well as information regarding the relative successes or failures of selected readings. Indirect community services include promoting the program to agency administrators with newsletters and publications. In turn, administrators who are convinced of the program's effectiveness are far more likely to find funding for future CLTL programming. As a participant in the program, the counselor (case manager) can work to inform and educate others in the agency. The ultimate goal would be to expand the CLTL program to other alternative-incarceration centers within the agency.

Conclusions

The CLTL program is an example of a courageous, innovative program, developed to offer an at-risk population the opportunity to experience growth through literature. It was started in Massachusetts more than ten years ago and has now expanded to other jurisdictions across the United States and Great Britain. CLTL is a marriage of higher education and the criminal justice system. Research would seem to substantiate the validity of the program as a viable option for people involved in the court system. As a community-counseling model, CLTL has the ability to transform the lives of the group members through the literature and discussion. It has the capability of expanding to the families of group participants, as evidenced by the story of the drug dealer in this report.

It is relatively inexpensive to fund, specifically when compared to the average cost of incarcerating one person for one year. CLTL is a proven program that deserves to be expanded to other alternative-incarceration centers in Connecticut.

References

Condon, Tom. (October 10, 2002) "Prison Experiment: Sentenced to Read" Hartford Courant.

Jablecki, Lawrence T. (June 1998) "Changing Lives Through Literature." Federal Probation, 00149128, 62.1, Full Text, Database: Academic Search Elite. Retrieved January 29, 2003 from http://web3.Epnet.com.

Trounstine, Jean, Shakespeare Behind Bars. New York: St. Martin's Press; 2001.

Waxler, Robert and Jean Trounstine, eds. Changing Lives Through Literature. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press; 1999.