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Abstract
The United States incarcerates more persons than any other country in the world, both at federal and state levels. Over the past 30 years, problems within the U.S. prison system-specifically, increasing violence and victimization-have presented a unique opportunity for organization development researchers and practitioners to contribute to positively changing prison culture. Driven by a call for action by Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Mark Inch, this research addresses the process by which the Peacemaking in Prison Conflict Management System (PIP CMS), a participative training intervention program incorporating the use of self, has been developed and implemented. The article explains the process for teaching prisoners soft skills such as interpersonal communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution and how these skills prepare parole-eligible prisoners for life outside prison. It also reveals initial specific results of the pilot program, which was interrupted by the COVID pandemic, and opportunities for future research.
Keywords: organization development, organization change, organization culture, mediation, peacemaking, prison reform, deescalation, self-awareness, prisoner education
"Getting After the Violence": Changing Prison Culture through Prisoner-Driven Dialogue?
Organization development practitioners and scholars understand the impact of an organization's culture on its members' environment and mood. Similar to DNA, an organization's culture expresses its mission, vision, values, processes, and history; thus, it is built over time as it is shared and behaviors are replicated (Chancy, 2017). Examining culture through the lens of systems theory is beneficial to understanding what has occurred in the U.S. prison system over the past 40 years.
The United States incarcerates more individuals on average than any other country belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Statista Research Department, 2020a, 2020b; Kaufer et al., 2014). In fact, in October 2020, the total U.S. adult correctional population reached 6.41 million, including those on probation, parole, or incarcerated (Duffin, 2020). These numbers reflect both federal and state prisoners. According to Kaufer et al. (2014), the majority of these prisoners are eventually released, but unfortunately, many continue to reoffend. The need for true rehabilitation has never been more important. Rehabilitation failure means reintegration failure (Coylewright, 2004). For example, recidivism rates in Florida have ranged from 24-25% for the past five years, while the national average, according to the latest PEW report, is 37% (Bureau of Research...