This week Awesome Stories brings you humane prison reform.
Compassionate Prisons
A staircase from the APAC prison to the gardens where inmates are responsible for growing their own food. Photo by Michelle Ferng.
Brazil has the third largest prison population in the world, behind only the US and China, with a long history of violence, and a shocking 70% recidivism rate. Valdeci Ferreira was inspired to help during a prison visit in the 1980s. He was shocked at how bad the circumstances were in a system breaking down with overload, violence, greed, bankruptcy, and more. Valdeci decided to make it his mission to help transform the prison system by addressing the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the inmates.
While researching what he could do, Valdeci came across APAC, the Association for the Protection and Assistance to the Convicted. APAC created a form of incarceration that focuses on rehabilitation, humanizing the punishment, and preparing people to re-enter society. The prisoners are kept busy during the day and only use their cells to sleep. They are busy with jobs, study, recreation, and religion. The prisons are clean, serve healthy food, and prisoners are known by their name, not a number.
The APAC system works.
It is built on the idea that people are more than their mistakes and their crime doesn’t define them. They are literally given the keys to their cell, along with the trust it implies. The prisoners begin to learn about responsibility, making decisions, and preparing the world outside.
The results have been fantastic.
The APAC approach costs only one third what traditional prisons do, have low recidivism (between 7% and 20%), and far better behavior with no violence or weapons. Despite its success, funding of the APAC system has yet to become national policy, allowing for more funding. Currently, APAC operates about 100 centers run by donations and volunteers.
Ferreira continues to work and have faith that the system will be widely adopted. He was recognized by the Schwab Foundation in 2018 as the Social Entrepreneur of the Year.
If you’d like to learn more about prison reform and restorative justice, you can visit these sites.
May we learn to have more compassion and responsibility in our lives.
writing to freedom 
It is fascinating how this APAC system works better. I guess it is what you say. By giving
some responsibility and teach care the prisoners are more able to adapt to a normal life.
The old system will create more and more anger and hate.
Not always easy to decide from case to case but I applaud that there are such new approaches.
miriam
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Thanks for caring Miriam. Treating the inmates as people and not numbers or criminals helps too. And I’m glad to see this and other new progressive ideas being used.
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The idea behind APAC system sounds really interesting and thoughtful..
Compassion is a very positive and strong emotion which can indeed do wonders!
Hope it transforms the prison environment not just in Brazil but all around.
Thanks for the post!
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I agree Nikita. Thanks for caring and following my blog. May compassion touch many lives.
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Illuminating post Brad. I teach psychology as an elective in a Criminal Justice Program. I will most certainly share your article with my students. And having done psychological assessments on several post penitentiary inmates, I can 100% attest to the importance of acknowledging the humanity in everyone. Thank you for sharing. Brilliant research.
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Thank you Andrea. I’m delighted to hear that you will share this info with your class! I feel strongly that we need more compassionate approaches to justice like this and the whole restorative justice movement. In gratitude, Brad
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This a great post with an awesome story. I hope this kind of reform will take root because it will benefit all. Thanks for sharing, Brad!
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Thanks Helen. No doubt we need massive prison and justice reform. Really reform across all systems in our world, led by compassionate women. ❤
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If we showed more compassion and kindness in ALL of life’s situations, it would reap rich rewards in all sections of society I feel Brad.. This was indeed an Awesome post.. Let us hope more take up this idea.. ❤
Love and Blessings for a great week Brad.. 🙂
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More and more, I believe we need a revolution led by women, leading from love and compassion. Clearly, men in power are out of control.
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We are entering the era of the feminine and that is not necessarily just female.. But your take on love and compassion rather than strength and control of the masculine..
Revolution is looming sooner than any of us may think.. Which is why I said on my own post not to pick a side but to remain balanced.. You would be surprised at how quickly energies can change Brad,.. And I feel we will all of us need to bring our awareness into play as things may well escalate out of control.. ❤
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Agreed Sue. I hope we can find balance and love in these turbulent times.
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So do I Brad, not to is unthinkable consequences..
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Fascinating information and I had no idea about this. Thank you Brad.
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You’re welcome Cindy. Thanks for caring.
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Gives me hope when I see so many people focused on helping in their corner of the world, on issues they feel passionate about–we’ll get there.
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Me too Kay.
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Love this. I think if we did this across every sector – humanizing all those around us – we’d be in much better shape.
I’m a little late getting here. I had a conference this weekend. It was good, but I’m catching up on all these wonderful blogs. 🙂
I wish you a wonderful week!
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I totally agree about humanizing all sectors of our modern world Cynthia. Thanks for caring and sharing in the spread of kindness and compassion.
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This is an important human rights issue. Thank you for bringing attention to it.
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You’re most welcome Rob. I totally agree. We need to treat everyone with compassion.
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When John Kennedy said, “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” it was a call to citizen action. This blog is my candle and your post is another light. 🙂
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That is a wonderful reason to blog Rob. Kudos. May we be lights in the dark.
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Reblogged this on Art by Rob Goldstein and commented:
From Writing to Freedom
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Thanks for the blog love Rob. 🙂
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Shining light in what would otherwise be such an inhumane situation. I don’t know how people can come out of prison as better human beings when they are treated brutally. This is an important initiative.Thanks for sharing, Brad.
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You’re so right Cynthia. How can we expect them to become good citizens unless we help them. Thankfully compassion and restorative justice are being offered more.
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Thanks for sharing this Brad….the system is broken and needs a major “rethinking”….
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Agreed Kirt.
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