Essay Sample on The Resolve to Stop Violence Program

Introduction

The Resolve to Stop Violence Project in San Francisco county jail is a criminal restorative program design to facilitate correction of male crime offenders. It is meant to give self-discipline to inmates with violent histories as well as to equip them with skills to make themselves productive. The project was rolled out by an anti-violence coalition which met in a large conference room in the San Francisco jail (Schwartz 134). The program would start in a full dorm bearing sixty-two inmates (Schwartz 136). The participants engaged in a five-day training composed of eight hours of activity daily. The program is aimed at peer-to-peer mentorship as well as exposure to educational processes. This essay thus seeks to give the details of this program together with providing examples of inmate successes and failures.

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San Francisco has witnessed a repetitive cycle of violence from inmates who have been in and out of prison. Many community members fell victim of these criminals, e.g., Polly Klaas, 12 years old, was abducted and killed by Richard Allen Davis in Petaluma, California. Richard was a repeat sexual offender out on parole (Schwartz 131). Jean O'Hara was an old grandmother from Pleasanton, California. A stranger killed her daughter together with her 20-month-old grandson. This had led her to form the Survivors of Murder Victims (Schwartz 134). From these ordeals, all community members, whether victims, law enforcers or the perpetrators themselves did not seem to benefit from the current correctional system. It was necessary to form a correctional program that brought back a sense of responsibility to criminals for their actions. This led Sunny, Marcum, and Becky to spearhead the anti-violence coalition named RSVP (Schwartz 133).

The RSVP program kick-started in County Jail 7 with 62 inmates aboard. There was tension that violence would erupt. Thus, five of the most revered sheriffs in jail were on the ready instead of the ordinary two. Initially, there was resistance with the inmates with many failings to concede to their crimes. Aside from the organising committee, several facilitators were invited among them, Jean O'Hara. One of their roles was to create an empathetic outlook to the inmates that their actions had a severe negative impact on members of society. When Jean first started her speech, inmates were resistant to listen. They showed this by their sighing coupled with rocking and shifting of their seats when Jean began her speech. After Jean started telling her story, the inmates become quieter than they ever were in jail. Sunny says the silence so amused her until she was even scared to breathe (Schwartz 149).

Jean shared her ordeal with the audience in the room and even before she was done with her talk, some male inmates were moved to the point that they were shaking and holding their heads in their hands (Schwartz 152). When Jean was done, the inmates remained quiet and respectful of each other. They were tender and callous not putting up a show to demand their lawyers as would have been expected. That afternoon they were able to share their feelings of anger, sadness, fear and most of all O'hara's sense of courage and courtesy (Schwartz 153) openly.

The most significant results of RSVP regarded Elroy and Ben who were hardcore criminals. Ben was reported to be engaged in meth and heroin abuse (Schwartz 155). During his stay at the RSVP program, he was very violent and always was a topic of discussion during most of RSVP's committee meetings on inmate discipline. At the time Ben was being introduced to the RSVP room by Earl, he was rude. Ben allied with Elroy, a 31-year-old convict of assault using a deadly weapon, to form 'the Ebony and Ivory of Hate' (Schwartz 157). This was a move to show their resistance to RSVP. Ben listened to other inmates share their emotions but was reluctant to share his experiences for a considerable amount of time. However, after three weeks, he was reported by Leon to be making agreements using the language of his group (Schwartz 160). Leon later stated that the next time he saw Ben, he could not recognise him. He was overly social with his peers, relaxed with hands resting in his knees and patting the shoulders of his fellow inmates (Schwartz 161). Elroy defences also soon fell. Later, he confessed RSVP to be the first place he could talk freely about his feelings with someone willing to listen (Schwartz 166). Finally, Ben and Elroy became best friends but in their reformed state (Schwartz 167).

The Manalive program was a major part of RSVP. It was meant to eliminate the notion that men are superior to every other being around them. It is also based on the idea that men should not entertain feelings of shame, sadness or weakness. In case these feelings are encountered, men are expected to react to them by ways of physical and verbal violence. Inmates train in alternative nonviolent methods of dealing with these feelings. A technique that corrects this state is to create interaction between victims and inmates (Schwartz 146). A homophobic culture is also discouraged by exposing inmates to films exposing the inequities they faced in society by homosexuals (Schwartz 169).

Changing the attitude of homophobic participants was one of the aims of the program. A video was chosen for the inmates called The Sharon Kolwaski Story. It involved a girl named Kolwaski who was bound to her lesbian partner in marriage. She had been involved in a motorcycle accident, after which her parents cut off access to her partner and the property they had accumulated together. This was effected through the law courts indicating the problems homosexuals faced in the American society. This clip had sparked a homophobic alliance which brought in commotion. Lieutenant Hunsucker and Sunny managed to calm the gay bashers insisting that they would encounter diverse cultures in the society and they had to respect their practices (Schwartz 171).

Sunny, Marcum and Becky were principal organisers of the RSVP program. They were responsible for making arrangements of venue for the meetings for the anti-violence coalition. When Sunny's mother fell critically ill and died of cancer, Marcum and Becky supported Sunny emotionally as well as facilitating the RSVP program (Schwartz 138). Jean O'Hara was a crucial participant in the Manalive program which is at the core of RSVP. She was a murder victim who shared her first story to the inmates who were moved and began their first journey to reconciliation (Schwartz 149).

Sunny and her colleagues faced a challenge of uncertainty. Sunny confesses waking up early in the morning full of anxiety with many what if questions running through her head (Schwartz 133). She also wondered how victims and perpetrators would react once they were together in the RSVP meetings (Schwartz 134). There was also political uncertainty concerning the outcome of RSVP if it failed to achieve its intended objective and instead let dangerous fugitives on the loose within the society. At the time, violent crimes were only punishable by lifetime sentences and even politicians had not been in a position to enact restorative justice practices (Schwartz 132).

Aside for the main organisers, Earl was the RSVP program manager who was initially a wife beater. He had gone through the first batch of the RSVP program and reformed. He was a mentor to the other subjects of the RSVP and had successfully convinced Ben Matthews, a resistant fugitive, to join the RSVP program (Schwartz 155). Deputy Ricky Drocco significantly helped the program get off the ground. He was revered among his colleagues and assisted in effecting appropriate administrative action on his deputies to roll out the RSVP program (Schwartz 168). He was also well vast with calming down prisoners' riots at the cells with his notably stern warnings. When the homophobic alliance riot broke out, he and Sunny successfully conciliated the crowd (Schwartz 171).

Conclusion

Some inmates, however, did not benefit from the RSVP program. Earl reported to Sunny of one who was so attached to drugs such that he could not keep up with the program. Another stayed for a month without talking to his colleagues. He was later sent to the psych wing. Another psychopath failed to respond to all forms of positive peer influence from his colleagues who had begun changing. The staff was not successful either in reforming him. He threatened his colleagues and scarcely contribution to group discussion. Sunny concluded that those who were to benefit from the program had to have some empathy left in them and the psychopath had none (Schwartz 158).

Work cited

Schwartz Sunny and Boodell David. Dreams from the Monster Factory: A Tale of Prison, Redemption, and One Woman's Fight to Restore Justice to All. New York: Simon and Schuster Inc, 2009. Print. pp. 130-150