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My name is John, and I'm incarcerated
right here in Monroe Correctional Complex.

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And I want to talk to you about 
changing the prison paradigm.

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To do this, we must address 
the misconceptions that we have

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about crime and incarceration.

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You see we think
that crime is the problem.

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But the truth is the pains of crime
are really a symptom,

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warning us of a problem in our society.

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Much like pain in your left arm 
or a tightness in your chest

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or a shortness of breath is a symptom


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warning you there's a problem
with your heart.

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In that same sense, there's a problem
in the hearts of our society.

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We see in the racial disproportionalities
of our justice system

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and the failings
of our educational system

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and our socioeconomic inequalities.

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Many crimes are merely symptoms
of these problems

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and trying to solve them through
mass incarceration is not the cure.

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That's like taking aspirin to ease
the symptoms of a heart attack,

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which will work, temporarily,

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but it will not fix the problem,
which is the heart.

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And in that same sense, there's a problem
in the heart of our society.

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Now, what do we do about this?

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Since I've been here the last 16 years
I saw so many men, children,

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coming in and out of this 
revolving door we call prison.

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In my experience, lack of education
is at the heart of the many problems

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that lead to prison.

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In fact, if you will, raise your hand
if you believe that lack of education

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contributes to incarceration
and recidivism.

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Wow, well if we all believe
there's a direct correlation

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between lack of education
and incarceration

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as well as the rate of recidivism,

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why don't we turn prisons into schools?

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(Applause) (Cheers)

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That way, we can address
the symptoms, which is crime,

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and at the same time address what many
would call the heart of the problem:

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lack of education.

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And, yeah. I said,
"Turn prisons into schools."

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Did I get your attention?

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Let me tell you how
this idea came to me.

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When I was around nine years old,

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a bunch of friends and I were trashing
this empty lot in my neighborhood:

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breaking bottles,
kicking over potted plants.

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There was this old wooden shack
we used to practice our karate on,

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trying to break the boards.

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None of us really knew karate though.

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And then one of my friends' grandmothers
caught us, Mrs. Alice.

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She called our parents, asked
for permission to deal with us herself.

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Now if you've ever had your parents called
on you, you know how bad this is.

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(Laughter)

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But when I found out this elderly woman
would be in charge of my punishment,

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I figured I'd get off easy.

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Boy, was I mistaken.

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(Laughter)

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You want to talk about misconceptions:
this sweet old lady was tough as nails.

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I come to find out,
that wasn't just an empty lot.

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It was a rundown community garden.

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She said our punishment
was we had to fix it up.

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Next thing I know, my friends' allowance
money, even my paper route money

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was going to pay for dirt,
seed, and fertilizer.

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She even made us pay for, print up,
and pass out flyers in our neighborhood,

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explaining what we did wrong
and how we planned to atone for it

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by renovating this garden.

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Now, amazingly enough,
our community came out and helped.

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We grew corn, lettuce, cabbage, potatoes;
I loved the tomatoes.

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We even turned that old wooden
shack into a greenhouse.

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I learned a lot about cultivating
but more importantly

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I learned not just what I did wrong
but why it was wrong.

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I learned how good it felt to do the right
thing and give back in a real way.

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How amazing it felt that my community
believed enough and cared enough

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to invest and impart these values to me.

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It's the strangest thing.

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That wasn't just a garden to me.

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It was my punishment;
it was also a school for me.

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This, this is what we need
to do in prisons today.

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Well, I'm not saying we should call
people's grandmothers.

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But could you imagine that?

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A bunch of grandmas shuffling around,
snatching up prisoners by their ears?

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(Laughter)

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But, what I do mean, is we need
to cultivate a place of learning,

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a place where prisoners
can work with the community

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to give back in a real way.

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In that garden Mrs. Alice taught me
the whole purpose of punishment

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was to teach me, to educate me,
so that I made different choices.

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And when I thought about it, I realized
yet another misconception that we have.

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Like Mrs. Alice, prisons are supposed 
to be teaching a lesson, educating,

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so that these men and women
make better choices in the future.

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But somehow we've become so fixated 
on the punishment part,

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we're missing the whole point.

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And when I thought about it, it hit me.

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And I saw it as clear as day.

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Just for a moment, imagine,
if we turned prisons into schools.

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Oh yeah.

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(Laughter)


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(Applause)

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What if we took policies and legislation


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that are overwhelmingly
weighted toward punishment,

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and we balanced them out by focusing
them on education, redemption as well?

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What if we saved a small percentage
of penitentiaries that exist today,

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designate them for initial assessment, 
placement, behavior management,

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and then reorganize 
all other prisons into schools:

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high schools, vocational trade schools,
technical institutes, colleges?

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Imagine.

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Now obviously we all know
the reason for the fences,

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the razor wire, and the walls
are to ensure suspension of freedoms.

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But behind these fences and razor wire,

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behind these walls, we should be focused
on rehabilitation through education.

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Now this is not something
that can be forced or coerced.

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But if a prisoner is showing 
the desire to change and grow,

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if they have a knack for art,
architecture, math, engineering,

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we should be telling them, 
we have classes for that.

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If they're dedicated
to leaving a life of crime,

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and want to become counselors
for at-risk youth

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to prevent kids from making the same
mistakes they made when they were young,

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we should be cultivating
these positive aspirations.

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If we turn prisons into schools,

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we could take committees
like multidisciplinary teams,

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facility risk management teams,
which for one, it's a mouthful.

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If you're not familiar with these terms,
I don't expect you to remember them.

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They're just classification reviews
in prison that assess prisoners,

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determining what they should do and where 
they should go while they're incarcerated,

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and they're closed off to the public.

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We could take those, exchange
them for community conferences.

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First thing we do:
open them up to the public.

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Let the community see

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the actions that prisoners
are making toward atonement.

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Let them see the steps
institutions are making

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to facilitate and hold
prisoners accountable.

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After all, it's our community
that's the heart of our society.

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It's where these prisoners were raised,

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where they committed their crimes,
where they will eventually be released.

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And these communities have
as much right, responsibility, and duty

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to be a part of the process as DOC,
Department of Corrections.

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Just imagine, if we turn
prisons into schools,

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we could take things like custody levels,
replace them with grade levels

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where the higher the grade level achieved

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through the completion
of educational and cognitive programs

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furthered access for reintegration,

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allowing prisoners to use
what they've learned

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at their respective schools
to earn back their place in society.

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And by doing this, we could take
the general public's lack of information,

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the growing communal fear
regarding a prisoner's release

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and transform that into a graduation,

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an acceptance back into society 
supported by the community's knowledge

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of a prisoner's personal progression.

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I say turn prisons into schools,

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because it's not enough to simply bring
educational programs behind these walls.

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No.

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Just like Mrs. Alice taught me:

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it's not enough to simply throw seeds
in the ground; you've got to fertilize it.

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You've got to till the soil.

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You've got to water it.

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And if the environment is not conducive
to producing the type of plants you want,

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you've got to change the environment.

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In this same sense, we need
to change the environment in prison.

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We need a greenhouse,

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because as prisons function today,
they're an environment of marginalization,

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objectification,

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an environment that is increasingly
becoming counterproductive

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to the very ideals of correction

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that the Department
of Corrections is named for.

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It's become so systemic that even
terms I'm conditioned to accept

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and identify with, terms
you will hear today, often repeated:

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"inmate," "offender," "convict" - 
they marginalize me.

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They marginalize us.

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And I can tell you
from personal experience

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that if you're under
such conditions long enough,

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it's likely you'll begin to feel like
you're incapable of growth and change.

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That no matter what you do,
you'll never become a better person.

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And this environment is not just affecting

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the prison population,
but the prison staff as well.

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Staff who find themselves
struggling between treating us

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like the human beings we are,

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or treating us like
the less than human objects

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these institutions have come
to define us as.

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Despite the good intentions of many
that work within the system,

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despite the good intentions
of many in this very room,

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instead of rehabilitating
these men and women in prison,

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we're institutionalizing them.

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And because of our misconceptions
about crime and incarceration,

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we're perpetuating a disservice,

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an injustice on our neighborhoods,


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our families,

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when we're not properly rehabilitating
these men and women in prison

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before we release them
into our communities.

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Ask yourself: do you want
institutionalized ex-convicts

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being released into your neighborhoods?

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Or would you rather have
rehabilitated men and women

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graduating back into society?

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Imagine.

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You see it?

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So, why don't we shed our misconceptions?

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Why don't we address
the heart of the problem?

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Why don't we cultivate
a place of learning?

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Why don't we turn prisons into schools?

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Thank you for your time.

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(Applause) (Cheers)