Who?
Who has a stake in the commons?
Juvenile detention centers often re-design a community. When a small town decides to house such a facility, the town changes. Families of the incarcerated move to be near loved ones, set up businesses and attend local schools. Sometimes the racial make up of a town changes as a result of the inmate population, which tends to be overwhelmingly minorities (”Young Adults in Jail or Prison”, 1). Not only do the families move into town but often times the families include victims of the offenders who then are in turn at risk of becoming offenders. In such a scenario it becomes not just the individual who is incarcerated who has to deal with his/her actions, or the families that must learn to function in society, but an entire community that must learn to deal with some of the most severe problems facing the human race today- mental illness, sexual and physical abuse, drug and alcohol addiction.
Storytelling is a powerful tool and is often used as a tool in therapy. In this particular program the potential for involvement of professionals in the community is especially broad. Story times may not only happen inside the detention center but could potentially occur for families outside the detention center as the needs of the families and/or victims may be different than the needs of the incarcerated juveniles.
Directly, many individuals will be involved in the commons, from the inmates themselves to the librarian of the detention center, the hired storytellers, the volunteers, graduate students, and the AmeriCorps employee. In addition, there are many other parties that may become involved over time.
Potential involved parties:
Therapists
Priests and Ministers or other spiritual advisors
Teachers working in or with the detention center or who anticipate receiving students back after their term of incarceration is over
Researchers
Area Public Librarians
Law Enforcement persons involved in re-integration (i.e probation officers)
Law Enforcement staff persons in the JDC
AmeriCorps VISTA persons working with local non-for profits in literacy
Parents and grandparents, siblings and children, and other family members of the incarcerated
Content by Nell Fleming