The Empowerment Model in Prison Education and its Obstacles

• In Event: International Perspectives in Prisoner Education: Innovations and Challenges in Transforming Learning and Learning Culture in Prisons

Abstract

My interest, research and applied, is in the empowerment of incarcerated men and women in their own social and academic programming, and the institutional resistance to such efforts. Research has demonstrated that the empowerment of members in the mission, composition, and performance of groups fosters greater commitment and more positive results than does a top-down imposed structure with mandatory participation. I offer three illustrations from Massachusetts USA. First, a university-level four-semester Spanish curriculum, taught by native-speaking male prisoners; second, a public-speaking program in which incarcerated women share their stories with community youth; third, a restorative justice program in which incarcerated men play a leadership role. The overall institutional objection is a concern for institutional “climate”, that is, presumed disturbances caused by differential power among incarcerated people. Specific objections to the empowerment approach include: “inmates are concrete thinkers” unable to manage the abstract reasoning called for by these programs; “inmates” will object to their peers having power over them, however benevolent; “inmates” cannot be granted autonomy to reliably plan and execute a program; finally, that community members –volunteers - cannot understand “inmates” and prison settings.

Author

• Jenifer Drew, Lasell College