"TAKING A TOUR - Inmate Kitiona Paetole, left, discusses Arts in Corrections during a presentation to Baroness Patricia Scotland on Wednesday at California State Prison Los Angeles County." KELLY LACEFIELD/Valley Press
Posted on 10/06/2005 9:39:10 AM PDT by BenLurkin
LANCASTER - Across the fence from Baroness Patricia Scotland, inmates in prison jumpsuits, some without shirts, called out for attention. A cold wind blew through the prison yard and the visitors across the barbed wire-laden fence might have been an odd sight for the inmates, who stood in the courtyard on a recreation break.
The men, many with shaved heads and several with tattoos, flashed gang signs at the visiting official, who was accompanied by the prison warden, Charles Harrison.
But Scotland, minister of state for criminal justice and offender management in the United Kingdom, walked in the other direction to a room neighboring the yard.
That's where she met Librado Clemena, an inmate and former gang member who changed his life with a 12-step program.
Clemena told her about Criminal and Gangmembers Anonymous, a program based on Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous and founded three years ago at California State Prison Los Angeles County.
"What changed about it, everybody's adopting the 12-step program," Clemena said about the rehabilitation programs offered.
"We are in Sweden, we are in Indonesia and hopefully, soon we'll be in England."
A 12-step program modeled after Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous could be available in the United Kingdom sooner than Clemena thinks.
"I'll be particularly interested to look at the Criminal and Gangsters Anonymous approach to see how they use the 12 steps and how they disseminate that amongst the groups themselves," Scotland said.
"What impresses me is the offenders are treating each other. There's not someone coming in from outside saying 'You do this,' because the response I'm sure is 'You don't know what it's like, you've never been where I've been and seen what I've seen and you haven't stood in my shoes,' " she said.
"The power of some of the programs I've seen here is you have people who say, 'Yes, I have.' "
Scotland's mission Wednesday in two prison visits in Los Angeles County was to find ways to reduce her country's criminal re-offender rate.
A member of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet, Scotland toured the Lancaster prison in hopes of reducing England's 60% recidivism rate. Recidivism, an inmate's relapse into criminal behavior after serving his or her sentence or parole, is an international problem.
According to a March 2005 report by the California Department of Corrections, 43.5% of former inmates were incarcerated again within three years of their 2002 parole.
Lt. Ken Lewis, a spokesman for the prison, said the statewide total prisoner return rate is around 60%.
So far, Scotland said, one of the effective programs at reducing recidivism has been creating partnerships with the private sector to find work for released inmates.
"The problem we have is more jobs than the people skilled to do them," she said.
The United Kingdom's Home Office, which oversees prisons, also trains prisoners to meet the employment needs of companies.
Scotland said merely housing the inmates for a crime has not worked.
"(Job training) is the most effective way of reducing (recidivism)," she said.
"We're building the skills to give them something and enable them to leave prison and live a gainful and crime-free life."
It's a philosophy that's more recently shared with California's prison agency.
In July, when the state prison agency was renamed from the California Department of Corrections to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, it marked a change in the state's philosophy on prisons.
But the more successful programs so far, such as Crime and Gangmembers Anonymous, have involved inmates volunteering to change.
Scotland said the environment prisoners enter must foster, or at least allow, the voluntary change.
"I think the thing to understand is it has to be an enabling environment," she said.
"What we need to do to enable offenders to take that path, is offer a contract which will be between ourselves and the offender."
Scotland said Criminal and Gangmembers Anonymous looks like a successful program.
Clemena said around 80% of its members have stayed out of prison upon release.
"I feel mostly confident it's because they've been placed in an environment that encourages and enables that to take place," Scotland said.
"TAKING A TOUR - Inmate Kitiona Paetole, left, discusses Arts in Corrections during a presentation to Baroness Patricia Scotland on Wednesday at California State Prison Los Angeles County." KELLY LACEFIELD/Valley Press
What? Another Martha Steward Thread?
Sounds promising. I've seen A.A. keep street people sober.
Hmmm . . .
Who is that?
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle...
The Baroness a character from the tv cartoon JI Joe.
Ah!
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