View on YouTube:
A Neohumanist Walks Into a Prison:
Thoughts on Criminal Justice Reform
with Andy Douglas
According to prisonstudies.org, the world prison population has grown by almost 20% since the year 2000. The female prison population has increased by 50% in the same period, compared with an 18% increase globally for men. The U.S. locks up more people than any other country in the world. Yet, a 2015 study from the Brennan Center for Justice shows that prison played no role in plummeting crime rates over the past thirteen years.
“By herding together edgy individuals against their will and enacting daily rituals of subjection," historian Robert Perkinson notes, "even the best prisons tend to foster more conflict than cooperation.”
A Neo-humanist outlook encourages us to recognize the potential in each person, and strive to create a social and economic system that allows for and encourages this expression of potential and growth. In the prison context, that might mean creating an environment and offering programming that not only reverses the sense of hopelessness that most people in prison feel, but also exploring alternatives to incarceration. In the larger picture, it would mean creating an economy that leaves no one behind, an economy that offers alternatives to participating in criminal activity.
Andy Douglas volunteered in a medium security prison in Iowa for seven years. His book "Redemption Songs: A Year in the Life of a Community Prison Choir" relays the narrative of this experience, and also explores alternatives to the prevalent 'warehousing' mode of dealing with the incarcerated, looking at how the arts and education offer chances for moving forward in life for many incarcerated people. He recently wrote a lengthy article entitled "Toward a Proutist Policy on Criminal Justice.". (Click on the name of his article to see it on the Prout Alliance website.)
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