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Crossing Borders
Volume 8, Number 2 - Spring 2010
Reentry Program Offer Literature as "Cushion of Hope"
by Patricia Andres
The Random House Dictionary of the English Language has this for reentry: “an act of reentering” (with reenter defined several entries above as “to enter again”).
For prisoners, though, the term is very specific—to return to one’s community after serving time in a correctional facility. And while returning home may sound like a simple and obvious process, the complexities of prisoner reentry are only hinted at by this fact: according to the Justice Policy Center in Newark, two-thirds of released prisoners are re-arrested within three years of release.
Connect this with some other facts: those convicted of a felony are barred from working in all areas of healthcare, most areas of education, any airport, and any state job in New Jersey. In addition, many returning home from prison have suspended driver’s licenses. How do people reenter their communities to make a life after prison when so many barriers are in their way?
Last year our organization offered fifty-one programs with a wide variety of different groups. Of those, ten were offered with reentry populations, including men and women in community corrections centers and early release centers—minimum security facilities where those who have been in higher security prisons go for a more rehabilitative approach to incarceration before returning home.
We are making an effort to offer more series with this population after having witnessed the ways reentry groups are particularly and palpably enthusiastic about the literature we bring, the lively discussions the stories provoke, the act of coming to understand others’ points of view and the growing sense of self assurance that comes of successful participation in a serious literary dialogue.
People & Stories treasurer Henry Reath suggests that the groups may supply exactly the “cushion of hope” needed for reentry, which is enacted against such great odds.
Perhaps one reason reading and discussing fiction feeds hope is the kind of witnessing consciousness the reader occupies when fully engaged in the work of art. As cognitive scientist Eleanor Rosch writes: “The appreciator of the arts and of fictional narrative always knows, on some level, that s/he is not the character in the artwork. Thus s/he can fully identify with and participate in the vividness of that character’s life and world without the pervasive filter of self-interest.”
So, a larger perspective, a frame of reference wider than one’s own context and particular point of view potentially opens. Perhaps this is what Leonard, a reentry participant at the Rescue Mission of Trenton, refers to when he describes his experience in People & Stories: “This makes me think and it helps keep me focused. It takes you away from the ordinary things happening around the facility. The literature has a way of doing that.”
Mary Gay Abbott-Young, CEO of the Rescue Mission, echoes Leonard’s position: “These stories help them to look at the world in new ways, expanding their view of other people and their own lives. Reading the stories and hearing about other people’s lives helps them to see that they are not facing their problems alone.”
Furthermore, Sally Maruca, a suburban participant who has been attending programs at Bo Robinson Education and Treatment Center observes, “It has been wonderful for me to see how great literature reflects their lives and relates to them. For example, after a recent session an ordinarily very quiet participant had this to say: ‘This is the only positive thing I hear men talking about here. The talk is usually all negative and all macho. But in our group (P&S) they say what is inside, in their hearts. It is so good for all of us.’”
“People & Stories makes them think and gives them pleasure,” Maruca concludes. I believe this last point is key to the “cushion of hope” Reath mentions and key to P & S founder Sarah Hirschman’s vision regarding the sheer joy brought to the human heart by beautifully wrought literature.
Margaret Griffin, a People & Stories/ Gente y Cuentos Board member who has been participating in one of our Trenton reentry programs, had this to say: “The fellows are certainly enthusiastic and very serious in parsing the text: paragraphs, lines, and pencils in hand. Not only are they bringing powerful insights to share with skillful analysis and articulation, but most delightful to me is how closely they are paying attention to the text itself and trying to figure out the author's intent. It feels to me like they’re grabbing at the opportunity to read and discuss at this level; they don’t want to miss anything. I'm just impressed with the global approach most of these guys are taking when discussing the stories.”
I am always moved when reading the following poem by a reentry participant who writes about his experiences in one of our Crossing Borders programs, where suburban participants from the “outside” join the group.
“people and stories”
We
are strangers in a circle digging thru
the ruins of thoughts and with the
enthusiasm of archaeologists we
excavate the past in search of a treasure
of feelings turning over memories
sifting thru beliefs while putting together
those broken pieces of life’s endless
experiences. Our hearts smile with each
discovery, the metaphors / the symbolic
explanations that lie beneath the
imagination and rise as if ancient dust
ready to expose and reveal themselves.
We step into the soul while brushing the
soil off the words researching the
decaying scent of sadness, studying the
remnants of buried laughter while
awaiting the next excursion where the
remote is manifested and the world of
this mind opens for our exploration.
k.d. kokayi
Bo Robinson inmate
People & Stories participant
Yes, reading and discussing literature will help develop reentry participants’ communication skills, which will be very useful at interviews and in the workplace. Yes, the critical thinking skills they develop will help move them forward. Yet, at a much deeper level, as kokayi’s poem reveals, it is the imaginative reach, the mystery, the exploration and the connections that matter most. These, perhaps, are the cushions of hope.