By DeAngelo Capone – Chair Liaison
Restorative Citizens Normalcy Center at Grafton Correctional Institution, OH
Normalcy in America’s prison system. In a country that extols itself as the greatest country in the world, its legal and penal system remains archaic. Normality is just beginning to take shape in Grafton Correctional Institution, a medium security prison in Ohio with the name Restorative Citizens Normalcy Center.
Adjusting to the American prison unit design the Restorative Citizens Normalcy Center is structured to reflect an outside community, consisting of a Hospitality Area, Common Area, Physical Wellness Areas, Kitchenette, Lounge Area, Study Area, 4 Paths named Foundation, Discovery, Freedom, and Hope. We have 3 class rooms with 5 areas of programming to reduce criminality, focus on character development, and life skills: Cognitive, Behavioral, Community Service, Vocational, and General Studies. Family Events are held to promote reconciliation and reunification along with workshops to establish social normality, thus closing the gap between offenders and the outside communities. There are 4 Normalcy Liaisons, myself included, who provide Residential Support for all 115 incarcerated men in our Normalcy Center. Tasked with being the bridge between staff and residents we also provide communications support for staff. Our day to day relationship is founded on Respect the Uniform, Respect the Person, and Respect the Resident Respect the Mission. This is utter defiance to and a shift from the conventional prison mindset that “guards and inmates” are enemies. It has also given the staff an opportunity to have quality involvement in the rehabilitation process.
Normalcy in GCI is still in its infancy stage and change continues to be confronted by opponents who are unable to distinguish who we are from what we did. There appears to be an increase in support from prison staff although it is questionable whether it’s from a genuine belief that we are deserving of humane treatment or forced occupational duty. Improving the quality of life for prisoners should not be a social discomfort or an ethical complexity for prison administrators. Normalcy as a concept is indefensible and an inconvenience only for those who believe it is an idea generated to normalize prison itself and incentivize crime by granting unlimited amenities to criminal offenders. As a proponent for change and restorative justice, Normalcy is a necessary step in our maturation and moral evolution as a nation if America’s prisons are to reflect its character proclamation.
The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky correctly assessed that the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. Using the title of one of his many works I ask the question, are the voices within American prisons merely “Notes From The House of The Dead”?
(Malika, GCI Warden – Keith J. Foley , George Williams – Founder of Project AWARE, DeAngelo Capone, Chef Jeff Henderson)
In December 2021 I submitted a proposal to GCI Warden Keith Foley that suggested GCI as an ideal facility to implement the Scandinavian prison philosophy of “turning prisoners into good neighbors”. Being on a first-name basis with him, Keith does not exhibit the prevailing attitude of a prison Warden who are, from my experience, more punitive driven than rehabilitative. So, he already understood that better living conditions and treatment for incarcerated men would produce better outcomes. But how could I convince him that I, perceived as just an inmate with a murder conviction and a gang file the length of California to Ohio, was worthy of a seat at the table of shared decisions and policy makers to help advance Normalcy? It took supernormal persistence and conviction aimed at the heart of penal justification – public safety.
Normalcy as a concept is indefensible for those who believe it is an idea generated to normalize prison itself by granting unlimited amenities to criminal offenders. As a proponent for change it is a necessary step in our moral aptitude and maturity as a nation if America’s prisons are to reflect its character proclamation.
To care for a child regardless of his or her offense has always been a parental obligation. America has discarded its troubled children to a prison system designed to be incapacitating and retaliatory for social offenses. Mercy has not been a judiciary option in America because the purposefully cruel are apathetic to human capacity for change. Just ask an offender who has gone before the Parole Board numerous times and has been repeatedly told he cannot be released because of the nature of his crime. The Board doesn’t see a human being in front of them and has not been involved in any change process for true measurement of character. They have one agenda, to exact punishment for an offense which the reality of will not change. An act, whether benevolent or malicious, alone does not prevent an individual from undergoing change. Anyone incapable of this discernment should not qualify to officiate justice on any level.
It is not from the sole position of reason that treating prisoners humanely is deduced to be in the public’s interests. But this model in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden has proven to have a recidivism rate of around 20% with the rate of reincarceration in the US fluctuating at around 65% in an estimated 30 states. Increasing the education opportunities, creating real world living spaces & interactions, and establishing pathways to reconcile and reunify with families & communities has put Scandinavia decades ahead of the US in prison reform and its humane approach to rehabilitating citizens. Corrective programming, disciplinary & disconnected supervision – repeated trauma – can no longer be considered an option if we are to heal and progress as a people.
I have been introduced to the term “habilitation” by Karensa Lockwood of the National Warden’s Exchange Program, which our Warden Keith’s Normalcy Initiative won. That term has had a lasting impact on me as to what it means to be able to have the life skills and behavioral habits to fit in today’s society as a functioning and productive Adult. That is what Normalcy in America is to me.
“To trample over prisoners is a crime which robs the world of butterflies”.
Founder & CEO of the Tranquil Earth Alliance
