Prison as a Parallel Universe

This article about an innovative in-prison program in Arizona is something to keep an eye on.

The core concept is that the normally corrosive prison environment has been reshaped to more closely resemble the outside world, or at least that aspect of it that someone trying to change his life might find; and in that respect it is certainly innovative.

The only two problems I see with it currently, is that the cost and logistics seem pretty substantial, not to mention the change in most correctional professional's perspective on the nature of their work, and in that respect, will probably resist replication.

The other is that with all of the good they can do, what happens in prison, even positively, has, at least so far, rarely translated into improved recidivism reduction.

However, it is really a strategy to revisit, once a proper multi-year evaluation by an independent and criminal justice credentialed third party, is completed.

An excerpt.

“The sad truth is that most traditional corrections systems in this country take men and women who are already clearly imperfect in their decision-making and severely restrict their opportunity to learn to make any decisions. In many ways, this allows them to continue to shift responsibility and avoid accountability for their prior bad acts and for their conduct in general.

“Shortly after I arrived in Arizona, staff throughout the Department of Corrections came together as a team to lay the groundwork for developing Getting Ready, a common-sense approach to pre-release preparation that begins on day one of incarceration and continues to the conclusion of every inmate's sentence. The program is a bottom-up, systemwide reform that can be implemented without enabling legislation or new funds. Getting Ready redefines the officer-offender relationship, shifting many responsibilities from the staff to the inmates and empowering both groups to function at substantively higher levels than in other correctional systems. For example, officers do not tell inmates when to get up and when to go to sleep. Getting Ready does not just preach about what you ought to be doing when you get back to the real world. We bring the real world — what we now call a "Parallel Universe" — into prison so that inmates in every custody level acquire and practice basic life skills from the first to the last day of their incarceration.

“Parallel Universe

“The remaking of prison life to resemble life in the community is a central premise of Getting Ready. Modifying ordinary facets of life in prison to parallel life outside prison — thus, its name, Parallel Universe — begins with one basic question: How do people in the real world tackle this problem?

“Take health care as an example. As most people know, health care costs are rising. In Arizona, we applied the Parallel Universe model by asking, How do we address this problem in the outside community?

“If someone in the community adheres to healthy habits — by not smoking, eating healthy foods, exercising and complying with medical directions — he will likely have a lower co-pay. On the other hand, people with unhealthy habits are at higher risk and thus will have a higher co-pay. We applied this same solution in Getting Ready, creating an all-encompassing incentive system that includes wellness, so that healthy habits deliver personal and fiscal benefits for both the prisoner and the system.”