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Show I[ ll I ,J. . Prison program aims to change criminal minds with great books By VERN ANDERSON ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER POINT OF THE MOUNTAIN, Utah IAP) - A few feet from where state prison inmates spend their days punching out license plates, a group of felon is discussing Huckleberry Finn' definition of thievery. Leon Hendrick , a heavily tattooed offender from Ogden, easily gra ps the mo.ral distinctions between "borrowing" and "stealing" made by Mark Twain's h ro. But in Hendricks' macho world of pri on and the streets, " taking" is just as excusable a "borrowing," and both are pole apart fro m "stealing." 11 teali ng i when you tak e someone' t uff when they're not around," Hendrick ay . "When you teal something you're just being chicken. But if you're taking something, you ju t tak i t and they can d s mething abou t it if they're man enough." " What if omeone pulls a gun?" anoth er in.mat asks. For Hendrick , the an wer i obvious. "Then I ain't taking it," he replies. In and out of prison four time in eight years, Hendrick , 26, i getting ready to be rel a d to a halfway h u e. H 's looking fo rward to being a fa ther to h is th ree ch.ildren, bur knows h.c could be back in prison befo re long. Prisons in the United States, where a high r percentage of the populace i s behind bar: than anywhere in the world (455 per 100,000), are full of Leon Hendrick es. Why? "Despite the multitude of diffe r nee m their background and crime patterns, cri minal are alike in on e way: how th ey think," Dr. tant n E. Sam now write in "Inside the C riminal Mi nd," a book that erves as the mspira rion for a unique piJoL program at Utah tatc Pnson. The Cogrutive Re trucruring Th r ugh Moral Literaq• program is aim d a t changing criminal mind th.rough ch ractcr education derived from 111ten ive study f great bo k . It' how Leon Hendrick met Huck Finn. The theory behind the program i a flat rc,cction of the view that criminal bas1cally are victims of societal orces beyond their control. Rather, a Samen w wntcs, criminals " re ard the world as a ches boa.rd over which they have tota l control, and they perceive people a pawns to be pu hed around at will." In short, cnminals choose crimi nality and they, not ociety, are to blame. Any attempt at reha bilitation, according to Samenow, must involve radical alteration of a criminal's self-concept and view of the world. Since January, selected inmates at Utah State Prison have been reading, completing rigorou computerized study guides and attending discussions with University of Utah student volunteers about such books as "Cheaper by the Dozen," "Call of the Wild" and "1984." The first phase of the program, funded by a $25,000 grant from the N ational Institute of Corrections, involves 25 books and will end in August. But Larry Bench, the research consultant for the state Department of Corrections who conceived and oversees the project, says that is too few books to affect behavior. He hopes that after being briefed in the coming week on the progress of the program, officials will approve participation by more inmates at more facilities. Work ing with University of Utah sociologist Gerald W. Smith, Bench bas compiled a list of I00 books that will take inmates a minimum of 3,000 hours to master. They range from classics of literature and biography to ancient and contemporary philosophy and self-help texts - from Plato's "The Republic" ·to "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey. Charles Dickens leads all authors on the list with six books. Bench and Smith rejected works that were too theoretical, ambiguous or inflammatory. "We were not too interested in including 'What's Wrong With America's Prison System?'," Bench laughs. Participants h.ave not found the program easy. Only 19 of the ori inal 55 volunteers remain active, although 17 of the dropouts were either transferred or otherwise prevented from continuing. The survivors are omewbat older and better-educated than th general prison population, Bench said. They include murderers, sex offenders and thieves and they are variously motivated. But the pportunity to work on the program's 20 computer and to discuss Chaucer or Homer with attractive young college tudents are trong enticement . " lt doesn't get much better than that in pri on," said Bench, who will valuate the inm ate 'progress with reading, vocabulary and empathy tests. Data on recidivism rates will, of course, take much longer. But Bench believes he and Smi th already ha ve met their main initial goal: To pr ve that uch an experimental program can work inside a medium- ecurity facility. "We haven't had one di cipU nary i ncident. In fact, we haven't had a11y of the problems we thought we'd have," he said. " We though t the books would be ripped off or destroyed. Bu t to da te we haven 't lost ne book. Even the people that dropped out sent the book back." One enrollee, a sex offender with a graduate degree, aid most of the pa rticipants are "currently le violent than the average inmate," and prima ri ly were drawn by the reading list and the pportun ity to learn to type and become computer literate. "On the whole I feel the program is wonhwhile a a v bide for promoting moral reasoning," the inmate, who asked not to be identified, wrote in an evaluation of the program. "T he d1scu sion groups offer a unique opporn mity to inte.ract with outside people who are not armed with an agenda .... The students have done a great job. r realize that most of them are pretty sea.red at first; yet they manage to be transparent in a way that allows for connection, which i something that we rarely, if ever, receive while here." The univer ity students in Smith's classes write the study gujdes using Computer Tutor oftware and then participate in book discussions at the prison. They give the program mixed reviews. Sev ral admitted they were frightened at fu t. Some of the women were disturbed by catcalls as they passed through the prison. But most enjoyed the discussions. "They wanted to convince us of their views," said Krista Simonsen. "They wanted to change OUR minds." Back at the prison, the "Huckleberry Finn" discussion continues. Hendricks is being roundly chided for championing a code of conduct that he is warned will land him back in prison once he hits the streets. The exchange is lively, moving one inmate to ob erve: "If we had bad this discussion in popula tion, it would have resulted in ~low and name-calling." Journal Classifieds mu t be ubmiued to our omces on the basement 1eve1 of the Technology Building or to the secretary in the Student Activitie Office. The co tis $1 for up to 25 words. 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