大象传媒

Some inmates are doing the chicken dance in the Pierce County Jail in Washington. They鈥檙e standing in a circle, so as they lift their arms to flap their wings, they knock elbows and shoulders.

鈥淥kay, I鈥檓 gonna do鈥� this,鈥� says one inmate, punctuating the last word with a dab. Cheers raise from the group and everyone starts the choreography from the beginning, with someone adding a Michael Jackson-esque foot flick to the ad hoc sequence.

鈥淚n all my years in prison, I never thought I鈥檇 be doing that,鈥� says David Anello, an inmate with  a strong New York accent and an easy smile. His face is red from a wheezy laugh.

Anello is one of 14 self-selected Alternatives to Violence Project workshop participants. It鈥檚 the second day of the three-day workshop, and the activity in which he and the others are involved is called 鈥淒ancing Dan,鈥� an exercise that gives them a reprieve from the emotional intensity of the program. The facilitators have been encouraging levity and laughter from the moment they started鈥攊t鈥檚 essential to the process.

The Alternatives to Violence Project is an international nonprofit that facilitates anti-violence and conflict resolution workshops within prisons, as well as outside communities.

Aggressive and even violent behaviors that are essential in combat often have no place in civilian life.

As of 2018, project鈥檚 national branch has active in 33 states. Each program has no less than two facilitators who lead numerous workshops with both incarcerated and non-incarcerated communities. Facilitators are volunteers who have completed workshops as a participant, as well as received facilitator training.

An internal analysis of the AVP program in a Delaware prison鈥攖he only study of this kind the project has completed so far鈥攕hows that than inmates who hadn鈥檛 taken the workshop.

Each workshop in Pierce County costs $3,000 and has anywhere from 10 to 15 participants. It takes an . In a 12-person workshop, six of them will statistically stay out of jail, meaning a $3,000 investment can save the county $216,000 in incarceration costs.

Because the project鈥檚 workshops usually take place in prison, where workshop participants are facing long sentences, studies on the workshop鈥檚 impacts rarely focus on recidivism but rather personal impacts. Studies have shown AVP workshop participants , a measure of someone鈥檚 predisposition to become angry with or without provocation, that lasted for at least two years after taking the three-day workshop.

Another study found that prison inmates who were interested in the workshop but hadn鈥檛 taken it were than those who had completed the workshop. This showed that the workshop wasn鈥檛 just taking credit for inmates who were already interested in changing their behavior, but actually influencing workshop participants.

Veteran Incarceration Declining

The Washington facilitators hold a workshop every other month in the Pierce County Jail, as well as more workshops in regional correctional facilities. The Pierce County workshop is unique, according to the project鈥檚 national office, because it is the only AVP workshop held in a jail鈥攚orkshops typically take place in prisons鈥攁nd it specifically targets incarcerated veterans.

The jail workshop is funded by Pierce County Veterans Services, as opposed to being supplied by AVP itself, and is run by Projects for a Civil Society, an independent  and local AVP chapter. The program dictates that at least seven workshop participants must be veterans.

Recently, that requirement has become more difficult to meet as the veteran population in the jail is declining.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if I could base it all on AVP, but they鈥檙e definitely part of it,鈥� says James Bolz, of the Pierce County Veterans Bureau, who brought the program to the jail in 2015. 鈥淎 lot of the frequent flyers we鈥檝e seen before aren鈥檛 coming back, the ones who have taken the workshop.鈥�

According to Bolz, even though the veteran population in the jail is declining, Pierce County is poised to have the highest incarcerated veteran population in Washington state in two years.

While veterans鈥攚ho nationally鈥攁re in the criminal legal systems for a host of reasons, . For example, trauma and PTSD can cause debilitating psychic pain, leading some veterans to self-medicate and develop drug addictions; if they鈥檙e not arrested for possession because of their addiction, veterans might be caught for theft or robbery鈥攁 means to pay for their addiction.

Similarly, aggressive and even violent behaviors that are essential in combat often have no place in civilian life.

鈥淲hat do they teach you to do in the military when you hear machine gunfire?鈥� Michael Howard, veteran and project facilitator, asks during the workshop. 鈥淭hey teach you to run towards it.鈥�

Soldiers are trained to engage because doing so is likely to overwhelm or distract a shooter long enough for the soldiers to locate and eliminate them as a threat, Howard explains. Soldiers train the behavior until it鈥檚 a near-instinctual physical response. While that response may keep them alive in combat, it works against them in civilian life. As of 2012, the latest data available, as opposed to 48% of incarcerated nonveterans.

鈥淭he military just kind of trains that 鈥榮top-and-think鈥� out of you,鈥� Elias Martinez, a workshop participant and veteran, says. 鈥淚鈥檓 to the point where I鈥檓 trying to train myself to think.鈥�

Before the workshop, Martinez converted to Buddhism to increase his self-awareness and remove violence from his life. His religious studies have had an impact, but he never felt like he could talk about the shift he was trying to make with others in the jail鈥攗ntil he joined the workshop.

鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to know that it鈥檚 not just me trying to work on these things,鈥� Martinez says.

Community Building

Each workshop is hosted in the TV room of a unit. The week before the workshop, Howard visits the jail with a roster of veterans and meets with them, pitching the program. If there aren鈥檛 enough veterans available to fill the workshop, then the program is opened to interested nonveterans. Workshop participants can be from any unit of the jail, but they must be moved to the unit where the workshop takes place the night before.

The workshop activities fall into categories of community building, shifting perspective, listening, and self-reflection. While the three facilitators鈥攁t least one of whom is always a veteran鈥攈ave the authority to tailor each workshop to meet the needs of the particular group, they stick to an underlying structure.

The first day is focused on community building. The facilitators lead several exercises that get participants to share and recognize their commonalities. There are speed-dating-like activities that move them around a circle to talk one-on-one with prompts like: What are you proud of? What鈥檚 a song that鈥檚 attached to a memory? Who do you need to forgive?

The group also pairs off to work on affirmation activities, where each person must talk about things they like about themselves for 2 minutes. This exercise is not only designed to reveal commonalities, but also to encourage each participant to focus on their accomplishments.

鈥淲hen we鈥檙e talking to incarcerated veterans, we鈥檝e caught them at a low point and they鈥檙e not thinking about their better qualities,鈥� says Roger Kluck, a facilitator and regional AVP organizer.

After a block of heavy introspection or serious moments, the facilitators transition to the 鈥淟ight and Lively鈥� exercises to get the participants on their feet and laughing. In addition to providing an emotional break, Kluck says that the movement exercises can also be a way to break up gangs from sitting together.

Keeping participants shuffling from chair to chair forces them into new pairings when they turn to their neighbor for sharing exercises. If gang or clique members sat only with each other, each participant wouldn鈥檛 be challenged to recognize common values and morals they have with others in the workshop. Creating a network of understanding within the group builds trust and a community more capable of supporting vulnerability.

The group learns the difference between 鈥渞ed light鈥� and 鈥済reen light鈥� language, or demanding versus asking. They also learn how to listen to hear and not just respond, and how to discuss feelings without placing blame by using 鈥業鈥� statements.

While practicing 鈥業鈥� statements in pairs, two inmates resolve a problem they鈥檝e been having in the unit. The two of them sleep foot-to-foot in the bunk beds that are tightly lined end-to-end, resulting in some accidental footsie. They volunteer to share their example with the class.

鈥淲hen our feet touch, I feel weird because everybody needs some personal space,鈥� one of the men says. 鈥淲ould you be willing to coordinate where our feet go?鈥�

Everyone chuckles, but facilitator Lisa Roy makes a point of praising them for using the exercise to talk about a real issue. She makes one correction: 鈥渨eird鈥� isn鈥檛 an emotion, so maybe replace it with 鈥渦ncomfortable.鈥�

Planting the Seed

Day three connects all the lessons. Now that the foundation of tools and terminology has been established, the group focuses on self-reflection and evaluation. Many of the exercises focus on personal values and priorities, such as each participant writing down 10 qualities, good or bad, on slips of paper. Roy then methodically tells the group to crumple one paper at a time and toss it to the floor, pausing after each one to ask how it felt to lose that quality.

Finally, the participants are asked to think of an insult they heard growing up and write down the affirmation they wish they鈥檇 heard instead. Then, as Howard plays his guitar in the corner, the group separates into two groups, each taking turns walking around the circle whispering the affirmations to one another.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e doing a good job, keep up the good work.鈥�

鈥淚 want you to come with me.鈥�

鈥淵ou鈥檙e not your father.鈥�

鈥淚 love you.鈥�

The workshop ends with a graduation where each participant receives a certificate and a bag of snacks鈥攕unflower seeds, Chex Mix, Pop Tarts, a donut that鈥檚 shelf-stable for several years and two packets of instant coffee.

Several of the inmates expressed a profound level of gratitude for their experience in the workshop.

鈥淚鈥檝e been in here seven months now, and I haven鈥檛 been able to talk about half the things I talked about in there,鈥� Martinez, the Buddhist veteran, says. 鈥淚t makes me feel like a person again.鈥�

Kluck attributes much of the program鈥檚 impact to its emphasis on self-discovery. The participants are never lectured on how they need to change or what they did wrong to end up in jail.

鈥淚鈥檝e been involved in programs before, [and] usually most people are involved in a program to get the benefits like the candy or the coffee,鈥� participant and veteran Jeff Lucey says. 鈥淚 think actually this program touched about 60% of the people that actually took advantage, and that鈥檚 a high number.鈥�

After facilitating nearly 50 workshops, Kluck says he can recognize who is really being affected by the course.

鈥淎s you sit there you get to see people make fairly substantial shifts,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here is always the question of how long that will last, but the research has shown that it really does stick.鈥�

Although he鈥檚 witnessed some participants struggle with accountability or how to envision non-violence in their life, Kluck says he knows that all he and the other facilitators can do is plant the seed and hope it sprouts.

鈥淵ou have to meet them where they are,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 make them what you want them to be, you can鈥檛 change them in the way you would like, but you can challenge them and they鈥檒l either take it or not.鈥�