…what if another layer of thinking could help prisons become better at both missions?
Prison rehabilitation efforts traditionally focus on helping inmates live differently going forward. What could happen if those efforts also included opportunities for inmates to face the realities that brought them to prison?
Could facing those realities contribute to lasting internal change? And could inmates who experience lasting internal change become positive influences within a prison?
Those questions led us to two hypotheses about Root-Cause Rehabilitation. We do not know whether our hypotheses are true. We believe they are worthy of consideration.
In addition, we have begun developing Root-Cause Content around our thinking. Books. Stories. A film. Facilitated conversations. These are seeds. Different ways of inviting inmates to stop, think, question, and perhaps begin looking at their lives differently.
None of our content proves our hypotheses. It simply allows us to keep thinking about what might be possible.
Perhaps prison rehabilitation and public safety aren’t simply competing responsibilities. Perhaps, sometimes, successful rehabilitation can contribute to public safety. We think that possibility deserves a closer look.