Theory to Practice Paper

Reflection: This page of my e-Portfolio contains my project/paper. This is a 30+ paper and contains assertions based upon many years of undergraduate study pertaining to criminology, criminal causation and the criminal justice and courts system, along with Adult Education in the Graduate PACE program at Portland State University. This project/paper demonstrates the manner that in-house education, within prison facilities is directly linked to significant decreases in criminal recidivism. 

When incarcerated offenders are allowed to focus on the development of the self and gain exposure to a liberal arts education, also gaining additional life skills, they experience an increased quality of life, coupled with greater self-efficacy and personal confidence, upon release. The intervention I am proposing is a creative writing workshop and curriculum I have designed myself, to encourage critical reflection upon past events, during the childhood years, the teenage years and the young adult years. The name of this course is, "Finding Ourselves Through Examination of Our Past" and promotes reflectivity and examination upon one's past. 

Critical reflection, a necessary component to any collegiate course, and a primary focal point of this writing workshop, focuses on the impact of experiences that have had profound and lasting effects on the psyche of incarcerated offenders and require some manner of resolution and/or closure. 

This writing workshop expands on the importance of these past and sometimes consistently avoided dynamics, and strives to provide all participants with the understanding and acceptance that will lead to healing and greater peace of mind, thereby effecting levels of recidivism in a positive manner. It is believed that in this way, education and creative writing workshops may have a positive impact on participants faulty concept of self-image and will lead to fewer instances of recidivist  behavior and an increased quality of life for offenders and those in communities nationwide. 

                   Reducing Recidivism through Education, Creative Writing Workshops,

And self-Actualization in Prisons

                                                I and the public know what all school children learn,

                                                   those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.

                                                                        W.H. Auden ~                            

Project Abstract 

This project identifies the manner that correctional education ensures personal development, more consistent employment and self-efficacy, thereby making the struggles of life less overwhelming for incarcerated offenders. It begins with discussion of the relevant issues facing incarcerated offenders who are at a disadvantage during many aspects of the educational process, from grammar school and thereafter. It then examines how reflection, which is an integral aspect of education is part of the process involved in reducing criminal recidivism. This project/paper will demonstrate the manner that education, while incarcerated, and writing workshops in particular, can provide insight, self-esteem and practical knowledge, for individual growth in an effort to divert offender’s behavior in positive, proactive ways and lesson criminal recidivism. An intervention to this problem is suggested in the form of a creative writing workshop. It is argued that by funding education through groups like The Bard Prison Initiative, incarcerated offenders can gain self-efficacy, moral development, and explore past abuse on a personal level. With correctional education such as writing workshops, recidivism will be lessened by engaging in self-examination, with the added benefit of a structured social environment, where diverse human needs can be met. The main theories in creating this intervention are from Mezirow’s structure of transformational learning and Kolbs Learning cycle.

Artifact: 

Theory to Practice Paper...