The Maine Humanities Council Newsletter ~ Spring 2001 ~ p. 4 & 5
|
|
The Maine Humanities Council Newsletter ~ Spring 2001 ~ p. 4 & 5 |
|
1 Stop and Think (cover page) 2 Our 25th Year 3 What Maine Kids are Reading 4 and 5 The Humanities in a Maine Prison 6 Beowulf Travels 7 Recent Grants Extras Extra Information At first glance, it doesn't look like a prison. There are no stone walls, high fences, or guard towers; no sallyports, barred windows, or inmates in orange overalls. The small complex of modern buildings could be a middle school, sharing the rural landscape with a traditional New England farm. But this is the Bolduc Correctional Facility (BCF, or "the Farm") in Warren, Maine, a minimum security prison where offenders who have five years or less to serve are preparing for their re-entry to society. The civilian clothes the inmates wear are deceptive: this is a thoroughly regimented place with frequent head counts, minimal privacy, and strictly scheduled days. Much of an inmate's time is divided between work details (including farm labor) and rehabilitative programs, which range from many kinds of counseling to vocational classes in such fields as the building trades, culinary arts, and auto repair. A wide range of academic and computer classes is offered, including the Maine Humanities Council's New Books, New Readers, a reading and discussion program for newly literate adults, and Let's Talk About It, the same book discussion group the Council offers at dozens of public libraries around the state. BCF's education director, Pascal Poe, recently spoke with Maine Humanities editor Charles Calhoun about these Council-sponsored programs for prisoners and other aspects of his work. |
 Q: The old theory was that fresh air and hard work in an agricultural setting would build character. Is that why this is still called "the Farm"? A: When I see crews working in the fields, it reminds me of the old image of chain gangs and guards on horseback with rifles. But it's not like that here. As you progress through the system you have more choices and more responsibility. The guys in the fields have chosen to be on farm crews. Other work crews, especially ones doing community service, go off grounds every day - for example, working with the MDOT to repair bridges and roads. This is a full-time working facility but there is also a wide array of programs provided by vocational teachers, substance abuse counselors, the mental health department, and many volunteers. Some people might look at us and say, how come they're not out there just busting rocks? But we believe that these people who have been exiled are still an important part of the community --- and they're going back to it. Prison can make them leave hardened and embittered, or it can give them a chance to explore their own better natures. Q: How do inmates end up here? A: First they go through Windham or Thomaston. Some get here quickly - first time offenders or those with short sentences - others work their way out very slowly, sometimes after 15 to 20 years at the Maine State Prison. It depends on length of sentence, good behavior, and classification (risk assessment). Many inmates have a rough road behind them, and a rough road ahead. Some will leave prison behind for good, no matter what. Another relatively small part of the population will go back to trouble and crime no matter how many opportunities for change a place like BCF offers. But most are somewhere toward the middle --- things could go either way. It would be arrogant to think the system can make people change, but we can encourage them at every step where change is possible. Q: When people at the Maine Department of Corrections speak of "restorative justice," what do they mean? A: One way to define it is in comparison to retributive justice, which focuses on the offender and the punishment for his crime. That approach is based on a relationship between the state and the prisoner which pretty much excludes the victim and the community. Restorative justice sees crime as a violation which damages the balance between the people in the community. Criminal justice should go as far as possible toward restoring that balance. This means involving everyone concerned - the families, the victims, the people in the community. The offender pays for his offense in a more meaningful way than just doing time. Loss of freedom is a terrible price to pay, but at the same time it's not enough. Restorative justice emphasizes accountability for harm done and responsibility to others. I sometimes think every single program we do, including the book groups, is about how you form, maintain and restore community. Q: Is the Maine corrections system particularly advanced in this regard? A: Maine hasn't fallen into the reactionary abyss that many other states have. Maine is pretty tough on crime, but it's not radically, politically vengeful the way states like Texas are. This is a small state, with a low crime rate. There are fewer than 2,000 inmates in the whole state system. I think we're pretty fortunate to be doing this work in Maine. The state doesn't have a lot of resources to put into education programs, but the corrections system always supports what we're doing. The people of Maine deserve lot of credit, too - they don't automatically write people off or refuse them a second chance if they've been in trouble with the law. Many volunteers from the community come in to teach literacy, computer programs, meditation, to take part in church groups and AA meetings - even victims and survivors of crimes who very courageously speak to inmates about their experience, as part of the Impact of Crime class. Q: Do you ever get discouraged? A: Sure. If you work here for any length of time, you see people come back, including some who seemed to have a really good chance to make it on the outside. You can also get a deeper and darker vision of the ways human beings deceive themselves and harm others. But it's still possible to be optimistic about many of the people here. Q: Critics of the American penal system sometimes speak of the "prison industrial complex." What does that mean? A: It means that corrections in many states has become big business, self-perpetuating, run for profit in huge impersonal facilities. We lock more people up than any other advanced country - way too many people, and some states are spending more money on new correctional multiplexes than they do on schools. As a nation, we're in denial about crime. We try to separate ourselves from everyone we consider "bad." We isolate them and try to forget that they are our children, brothers and sisters, and that the community bears responsibility for them, and to them. Q: Where do reading and discussion groups fit into all this? A: I think everyone who works in corrections --- teachers, counselors, administrators, guards --- has an obligation to treat inmates with honesty, consideration, basic human decency, because we all learn by example. To my mind, education in a general way means giving people a sense of possibilities, more awareness of the world and their place in it. When inmates have a chance to work with someone like Eleanor, and Brent, and USM English professor Lorrayne Carroll - someone who loves the work, who loves helping other people, respects them as fellow struggling human beings, and considers the choices they make very important, it's bound to have a good effect. As for the Humanities Council programs, I don't think you can study good books or practice writing with a good teacher without becoming more aware of your connectedness to your community. We really are all in this together.
Photos by Susan DeWitt Wilder |
4. and 5.
|
© Maine Humanities Council, 2002–2008 Please contact Donna Jones at West End Webs for questions or problems with the web site. |
Pascal Poe, education director at the Bolduc Correctional Facility in Warren, believes that the Council's book discussion groups helps inmates better understand their relationship to the Maine communities to which they will eventually return.
