By Kate
Kesteloot-Scarbrough, Executive
Director, Mediation & Restorative Services
Prison might not be the
first place you think of when you imagine alternative dispute resolution, but more
than 40 men at E.C. Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon have been trained
as community mediators and they are making peace every day.
Community can mean a town or
an intentional gathering of like-minded people, as in a church community or a work
place. It can also be a school or a
neighborhood. I suspect we rarely think
of a prison as a community, but I would suggest that prisons are their own communities
and they are part of our community, and that is why a Community Dispute
Resolution Center trained men to become mediators at E.C. Brooks.
Mediation & Restorative
Services is one of 18 Community Dispute Resolution Programs in Michigan. In early 2014, E.C. Brooks agreed that
Mediation & Restorative Services could bring Brian Pappas, PhD, JD, LLM, Associate
Clinical Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law, into the
facility to provide a SCAO-approved general civil mediation training to 25 men,
the resident unit manager and the chaplain.
The goals in training the
men as mediators were improving their conflict resolution skills, decreasing violence
within the facility, preparing the men to bring those skills to their outside
communities, and connecting them with community-based volunteer opportunities
upon their release.
The facility staff and
Mediation & Restorative Services jointly developed clear eligibility
criteria for the training and prepped the applicants before they, and we,
committed to the training. The July 2014
training was a full week--40 hours of intense intellectual stimulation and
anxiety as each man took part in role plays to practice their new skills.
In December 2014, Pappas
returned to the facility, bringing 12 MSU law students. The students and the E.C. Brooks community mediators
took part in a mediation competition all day, with local area community
mediators volunteering as judges. The prison
community mediators showed up freshly barbered, groomed and shined, and they
gave the law students a run for their money!
The students and inmates
competed in three, two-hour rounds of judged mediation competition. The mediators assisted participants in
resolving two conflicts typically faced in the outside community and one
conflict typically found inside a correctional facility. The competition style and rules were
consistent with those used at International Academy of Dispute Resolution
Mediation Tournaments.
In July 2016, Mediation
& Restorative Services and Pappas trained 21 more mediators at E.C.
Brooks. Six men from the 2014 cohort
acted as coaches and mentors to the new mediators. In December 2016, Brooks and MSU met again in
competition. Although MSU College of Law
won the competition, the winning individual mediator in both competitions was a
man from E.C. Brooks.
The competition days were
incredibly powerful for everyone involved.
The competition judges included professional mediators, lawyers, court
administrators, current and former judges and experienced community volunteer
mediators. Without exception, the competition
judges reported that they were impressed with the level of skill among the
competitors, and that the experience moved them profoundly. The law students, too, felt strongly about
the experience. One student shared his
experience on Facebook:
“I will
never forget the day I had today. Myself
and several other MSU Law students spent the day at a Michigan state prison in Muskegon
doing a mediation competition with inmates who received the same training that
we had in August.
While my
classmates and I learned to mediate civil and small claims matters, these guys
learned how to mediate amongst one another. Sometimes they're small matters, but sometimes
inmates' safety hangs in the balance. One
man told me that an inmate died a few years
ago as a result of an argument that for many would have been a minor incident.
It was incredible to get
to know those guys and understand that while their decisions had gotten them
there in the first place, their actions had the potential to make their
community safer and more civil. I think
so often, people forget that incarcerated individuals are still human, that
they still have emotions, and that they still have the ability to make their
world a better place for others, if even in a small way.
These guys are fathers,
husbands, and friends. Some of them will
die in prison, and they've come to terms with that. I guess it just goes to show that those we
imprison are still human, and that human nature compels us, even
subconsciously, to make the world around us a better place.”
The men of Brooks also had a
strong reaction. One inmate noted, “We
were competing with our minds. This is
the closest I have felt to free in a long, long time.”
The facility guards
observing the competition expressed their surprise and admiration for the men
competing, and I watched a competition judge discuss “The Merchant of Venice”
and the quality of mercy with a man who has been incarcerated for more than 20
years.
I have met regularly with
the inmates to address specific skills and to prepare for the
competition. During those times, we have talked often about how they are
using their skills inside with other Brooks community members. After the
competition, as part of the overall debrief, we talked for the first time about
other ways they are using their skills.
Several men noted that they are using these same skills with their
families--using them to both deepen their understanding and also move forward
in the process of reconciliation. One mediator told the group, “Talking
with my family, I see now that my choices didn’t just imprison me; my family is
imprisoned with me.”
It is probably not a stretch
to say that most men living in our prison communities are not practiced at
healthy conflict resolution and communication.
One of the Brooks mediators said after the training, “I feel like I hear
with different ears now.”
Mediators have strong
listening skills; they are adept at looking at situations from multiple points
of view, keeping conversation constructive, and shifting discussion from the
parties’ positions to their underlying needs.
The inmates shared both
their increased confidence and their pride in their
accomplishments. Many of the Brooks mediators have lived inside for
a long time, and the competition was a chance to see if they could interact
effectively with “regular people,” as they put it. Several of the men
specifically mentioned that they were less fearful of going back out into “the
world” because they were confident now that they could talk with people and
that they had something to offer.
Mediation training is not a
panacea for all that ails people in prison, but it offers some encouraging
potential. For example, conflict
resolved respectfully and effectively in prisons could keep people safer; it
could mean more days in general population and more days taking part in
productive programming. Men who have become more skilled listeners and
communicators may find deepened family relationships upon their return home,
which could, in turn, affect their willingness to regularly support their
children.
Skilled listeners and
effective communicators are also attractive to potential employers, potentially
making it easier for the men to be successful when they rejoin our
communities.
Of course, a larger sample,
more rigorously studied would be necessary to flesh out this picture.
In the meantime, the Brooks mediators
are using their skills to assist other members of their community in resolving
conflict peaceably, demonstrating that people in conflict can solve problems
without violence and in a way that lets them both walk away with their dignity
intact.
Kate Kesteloot Scarbrough is the Executive Director of Mediation & Restorative
Services in Muskegon, Michigan; a Community Dispute Resolution Center serving
Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, and Manistee Counties.
Since 2000, Mediation & Restorative Services has worked closely with
the Muskegon County Juvenile Court using the concepts and practices of
restorative justice.