Restorative Justice in a Prison Community

Or Everything I Didn't Learn in Kindergarten I Learned in Prison

Cheryl Swanson

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2009
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798216243656
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Americans are frustrated with prisons. They recognize the need for these institutions, but at the same time, they worry about whether the money used to build and maintain them is well spent. Older prisons are dirty, disgusting, and dangerous, but even newer facilities come up lacking in terms of offering inmates opportunities to take responsibility for their crimes, support their loved ones, further their education, learn job skills, and develop positive relationships in healthy, safe, respectful communities.

This book provides insight into the philosophy of restorative justice, which aims to develop ways we can manage our prisons differently to achieve more positive outcomes. Using the case study of an honor dorm in a maximum security prison, the book posits that most of the inmates never learned the basic tools for living life productively and responsibly. They never thought much about their victims or how their actions affected others. They never learned how to get along with others, pick up after themselves, or how to be of service to their fellow man. Swanson uses the writings and reflections of inmates participating in a restorative justice program to demonstrate the challenges and transformative possibilities of this alternative approach to rehabilitation.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: A Blueprint for This Book
• Chapter 01. Improvement Needed
• Chapter 02. Restorative Justice in Prison Communities
• Chapter 03. Restorative Justice Goes to W. C. Holman Correctional Facility
• Chapter 04. Learning to Play with Others
• Chapter 05. Cleaning up after Yourself
• Chapter 06. Learning the ABCs
• Chapter 07. Working with Others
• Chapter 08. Getting to the Next Grade
• Chapter 09. How Guardians See It
• Chapter 10. What’s Next
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author