The Hangover

Thanks for the postings Allan. I am one of those who typically sends his postcards after I return from my travels, not during them like you are supposed to. I just get too caught up in being in the moment itself, and, man, there were a lot of moments on this trip to the US. Allan has covered the highs and lows of the Discovering Desistance filming adventures brilliantly already, so I won’t repeat what he has shared. But, in addition to our intense time on Prison Row in Baltimore, our fascinating discussions in Malcolm X Park in DC, and our great interview with John Laub at the NIJ, I also had a series of other desistance-related meetings and talks in my 10 days in the States that I thought I’d blog about.

First and foremost, I also had the chance to go up to Albany to visit with my old friend and life mentor Hans Toch, originator of the idea that “everything works” in offender rehabilitation. Hans recently won the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award of the Division of Corrections and Sentencing at the American Society of Criminology. His typically humorous acceptance speech for the Award admitted that the state of US prisons at the moment is not much of a living testament to the impact of his research over the last five decades, but he dedicated the award to those criminal justice professionals who have fought against the grain and tried to make a difference in the real world. His words were touching and he was exactly right.

I also got the chance to meet with some of these types of individuals inside the system and making a real difference. For one, I had a discussion with Susan Tucker, Vincent Schiraldi and a fascinating group at NYC Probation where I learned about the highly exciting justice reinvestment work that they are doing as part of their NeON and Young Men’s Initiatives. I also had an intense and evocative conversation with a group of reentry experts, facilitated by Ann Jacobs of John Jay University’s Reentry Institute. Probably the most challenging exchanges I had were with Susan Herman, the author of the book Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime. We desistance researchers sometimes talk too glibly about bringing a “victim focus” into the desistance discussion (I know I do), so Herman’s work should be required reading – and I can strongly recommend a discussion in person with her if you get the chance as well.

My hosts in NYC were actually not from the Reentry Institute at all, though. I was at John Jay at the request of a group of scholars organized by the Center for Criminal Justice Ethics, who are interested in questions of “Character, Agency and Prisoner Reentry”. What makes this a most interesting group is that most are from the humanities – philosophy and English departments in particular. We social scientists could learn a great deal from their thinking on desistance issues as well.

Last, but not least, of course, I also had the chance to go to the American Society of Criminology meetings, this time in Washington DC. The ritual of an ASC meeting is its own acquired taste — a bit like Marmite. I crave it like an addiction, but others find themselves gagging at the thought of it. In a way, the ASC reflects America itself. It is far too big, too corporate, too blind to social justice issues and generally too in-love with itself. Yet, it is also much more diverse, professionally organized, and (I hate to say it) impressive both in scale and quality than the smaller, more human-scale criminology conferences I love so much in Europe. Going to an ASC is like trying to take a drink of water from a fire hydrant. It always takes me about a week to recover from it all (which is why I think they schedule it for right before Thanksgiving in the States).

So, yeah, it has been a busy couple weeks and if you are waiting to hear back from an email to me, I hope you will appreciate why I have maybe been out of touch and/or not contributing much to the blog.  

Cheers, Shadd