III.

A RECOVERY MODEL: Implications for Curriculum and Instruction

Historical interest in education for incarcerated youth and adults (16–24), more recent social and political attention, and a considerable funding base have generated substantial interest in corrections education. While the concern is gratifying, it is vital that the academic expectations placed on these young people be realistic, given the realities of their lives and their incarceration. It is clear from The Challenge of Service Provision for Incarcerated Youth that the majority of youth enter the juvenile justice system with family or institutional system histories of trauma and exploitation, rendering them potentially traumatized.

A recent work by Judith Lewis Herman, M.D., entitled Trauma and Recovery, describes an approach which has implications for working with young people in a corrections setting. The author reviewed conclusions from her own revolutionary research and examined atrocities of sexual, domestic and political life: “...horrible things that no one really wants to hear about.” Dr. Herman investigates the common consequences to these trauma victims and designs a new conceptual framework for psychotherapy with traumatized people. The effects of traumatic events are very complex, differing often from victim to victim. Traumatic events are by their very nature so unspeakable as to be secret, and so savage as to compel truth–telling. According to Herman, “...far too often, secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom.” She goes on to name this syndrome which “...follows upon prolonged, repeated trauma complex post–traumatic stress disorder.” The author then suggests a unique approach to recovery which relies heavily on integration rather than catharsis, the more traditional psychotherapeutic technique.

Healing adults who have been exposed to repeated trauma from which significant personality erosions have occurred is an enormous challenge. Of even greater consequence, maintains Herman, is “...repeated trauma in childhood which forms and deforms the personality.” Children who are trapped in such an environment have potentially lifelong struggles with issues of trust, safety, control, and power.

Many incarcerated youth and adults are or were these same children described by Judith Herman. They feel mistrustful, in danger, out of control, disempowered, and disconnected. While education programs for incarcerated youth and adults are not equipped to provide the long–term therapy necessary for healing and recovery, Herman’s model for recovery can help educators design programs and environments which make learning possible.

Herman introduces her model as creating a sense of empowerment and connection during the recovery process. Human connection is critical to this model because healing cannot occur in isolation, nor can learning. The author describes the re–creation of psychological faculties of trust, control, autonomy, initiative, competence, identity, and intimacy, all damaged and deformed during trauma. She further describes this recovery as a conceptual framework consisting of three stages: establishment of safety, remembrance and mourning, and reconnection with ordinary life.