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One of my favourite films is the 1994 award winning movie The Shawshank Redemption. Not only for the fantastic acting of Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, both Oscar-winners, or the message of hope and never-say-die attitude of the protagonist, but also for its articulation of the salutary effects of reading and how literature can influence one’s perspective on life. Imprisoned in the notorious jail on a cooked –up charge, Robbins (Andy Dufresne ), a banker, like many others -including his close friend Freeman (Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding) could have given up on hopes of ever getting out; the prisoners seem to accept life under a corrupt and sadistic prison-in-charge Warden Samuel Norton. But Andy hones his own plan of escaping, even nailing Norton. In the meantime he also starts a library in the prison for his fellow prisoners after endless petitions to the authorities. It is an inspiration to watch as his few-books library gets bigger and bigger with more prisoners dropping in to borrow books, and even neo-literates laboriously go through a Dickens or a Stevenson. We learn to look at prisoners charged of murder, felony, etc. with more humane eyes, and empathise with their aspiration to reach beyond the cruel world of the prison walls.
All these came to my mind when I read in The Guardian recently that the Texas state prison has started an experiment of rehabilitation by putting some prisoners on probation on one condition. They are ‘sentenced to read.’ When Michell Rouse was convicted of two counts of drug offences in Houston he was facing a 60 year sentence. He was introduced to a reading course which he describes as “miracle” ; it has kept him away from drugs, he is living with his family and holding a job now.
Rouse is one of the thousands enrolled in a programme called Changing Lives Through literature (CLTL) where offenders of various crimes are made to sit through reading sessions in groups. As literature professors of universities introduce them to Greek classics or poetry of English literature, the prisoners listen and later discuss the topics. It also gives them a sense of being equal, their opinion respected, Rouse said in an interview.
In a survey later it was found that of the 597 prisoners on probation who had completed the course in Brazoria County, Texas, between 1997 and 2008 only 36 had to go back to the prison. Other prisons in the country are also trying out this novel way of rehabilitation. In the UK too a programme like this, “Stories Connect”, has been tried out in some prisons.
Even beyond the scope of rehabilitation, it is well worth speculating as to the longtime impact of the course. By inculcating the habit in reading it can have a positive influence on a person’s mind.
It has been a long known fact that reading together and enjoying listening to stories make young children develop their sense of imagination and encourage them to carry on the love of books into adult lives. Some publishers say that in India young people are reading books as in the past while some say the reading habit is slowly on the decline. The young with their short attention span stoked by the ‘remote control’ of the television cannot wade through a classic or a novel these days, some social scientist opine. It’s hard to corroborate it without extensive survey but comments like “ no time to read books under the pressure of studies/ work’ are often heard in social circles these days.
It will be a pity if books become of minor importance in one’s life. For, as the prisoners of Texas or elsewhere, even a film like The Shawshank Redemptionshows, show books are just not about printed words; they are a source of inspiration and imagination.
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