Maine Perspective Front Page
Changing Criminal Lives Through Literature
Criminal offenders convicted in Maine courts now have an alternative to jail time or fines. Judges can now sentence offenders to spend time in a literature discussion group.
The University of Maine, the Penobscot Tribal Court and the Bangor Court system are joining together to offer an alternative to traditional punitive sentences. The Changing Lives Through Literature program will offer eight weekly meetings at the Honors Center in this first-ever collaboration between the two court systems.
"People will be sentenced to this program in lieu of other punitive actions," says Gary Growe, chief judge of the Penobscot Nation Tribal Court. "I think this program appeals to offenders on a different level than punitive measures because it provides them an opportunity to think about their relationships with others and authority in ways they have not before."
Changing Lives Through Literature was begun in 1991 by Robert Waxler, professor of English at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth. The program started with eight men, ages 18-45, who had a total of 146 convictions.
Waxler says the group was required to read and discuss a series of books, including Seawolf by Jack London, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Sula by Toni Morrison. He says that through reading and discussing literature, the often isolated participants have a chance to regain their own voice and communicate on a deeper level than they would normally.
The program was evaluated in 1993 using 32 program participants and 40 men in a comparison group. Program participants in the study group had a higher risk in their criminal backgrounds and a higher ration of violent offenses than the men in the comparison group.
The two groups had dissimilar outcomes. Eighteen percent of the program participants were convicted of new crimes; 45 percent of the comparison group were convicted of new crimes.
"I did a lot of criminal defense in the past and saw that the court spent a lot of time figuring out how to punish people and little time drawing out their positive qualities," says Growe, who with George Tomer, director of the Tribal Court, brought the program to Maine. "Many people who commit crimes have very fixed responses in how they approach problems. In this program, people will see alternatives to their fixed responses."
The course will be taught by Margaret Lukens, UMaine associate professor of English, who specializes in Native American literature, 19th-century American literature and multicultural studies. Lukens is concentrating on Native American authors for this first class.
"I've taught Native American literature at the University for seven years and this literature always seems to have a transformative effect on people," Lukens says. "It's hard to feel self-respect when you've been handed a punitive sentence such as jail time or a fine. These classes are held in an academic setting, a place designed for self-improvement and inquiry."