An alternative sentencing
program has been reducing recidivism in Massachusetts for over twenty years. In 1991, UMASS-Dartmouth Literature Professor
Robert Waxler, Judge Robert Kane and Probation Officer Wayne St. Pierre started
the program called “Changing Lives Through Literature.” For 12 to 14 weeks, probationers, Judges and probation
officers read and discuss six or seven literary works. The program ends with a
graduation ceremony in a full courtroom.
At the twenty year anniversary, the Trial
Court participated in a day-long symposium to assess the program’s impact. Numerous testimonials and studies
proving the success of the program have been listed on the CLTL website.
"I was walking through the streets of the city the other
night," a student in Robert Waxler’s class told him once. “It could have
been any city, any street, any of us. ‘And I was thinking about Santiago [ in
Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea ],’
he continued. ‘I came to a corner where all my old buddies hang out up the
street. You know, I've been struggling to stay clean for a long time. But I was
depressed. So I began to make the turn, to go down that street, back to the old
neighborhood. Then I heard him, the old man. It was like listening to his
voice. I remembered how he had gone out each day for almost three months
without catching a fish. He hadn't caught anything, but he still got up each
morning, tried it again. He must have felt terrible, but he didn't give up. So
I didn't make the turn that day. Stayed strong. Thanks to the old man. I heard
him.’ “
Last May, the Trial Court announced that it will be expanding the program to reach more Courts and more probationers. Herein is “What you need to know about Changing Lives Through Literature.”
