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Thursday, October 9, 1997

Probationers study literature to refocus life

"The unexamined life is not worth living" -- Socrates.

By JASON SPENCER The Brazosport Facts

CLUTE, Texas -- Instead of lifting a beer to his lips each night before bed, seven-time convicted drunk driver Robert Anderson now raises a book to his eyes and reads to his children.

A 36-year-old industrial worker on probation for driving while intoxicated, Anderson has spent much of his adult life entrenched in the criminal justice system while fighting a losing battle with alcoholism.

Last week, he graduated from an unconventional program that gives probationers credit for community service hours in exchange for completing a course in literature, which includes the works of Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, Jack London and other literary greats. Anderson said the program helped him give up the bottle and focus on rebuilding his life.

"I never was able to pick up anything but a Budweiser can," Anderson told 25 fellow probationers during a graduation ceremony held in State District Judge Robert May's courtroom. "I had 52 (public intoxication arrests) and seven DWIs, and I'm not proud of it. I was in and out of jails, and I wasn't getting any help."

Anderson and his classmates are the fourth and largest group to finish the 12-week "Changing Lives Through Literature Program" brought to Texas by Dr. Lawrence Jablecki, Brazoria County Chief Probation Officer.

Started in January, the literature course for probationers is the only such program in the state of Texas

So far, 34 probationers have completed the course and another 33 are currently enrolled in on-going classes taught at Brazosport College and Alvin Community College.

The literature program is based on the premise that probationers will personally identify with the characters in the books they read and learn to apply the characters' moral judgments to their own lives, Jablecki said.

Before now, the program only existed in Massachusetts, where a college professor named Robert Waxler asked his friend, Judge Robert Kane, to participate in an experimental program aimed at turning around the lives of career criminals by exposing them to classic literature. That 1991 experiment turned into a quietly successful program shown to reduce a probationer's chance of future run-ins with the law by more than 30 percent.

Highly energetic and fed up with a criminal justice system that has become a merry-go-round for society's malcontents, Jablecki said he was immediately drawn to the program and its potential for impacting probationers' lives.

Jablecki convinced May to travel with him to Massachusetts last September to meet with Waxler and Kane and see their program in action.

Impressed with the program's success rate, the men agreed to see if it would fly in Brazoria County. Now, all seven local district court judges and county court judges have agreed to participate in the literature program, Jablecki said.

Using state grant dollars, Jablecki bought a stack of books and started recruiting probationers to participate in the program.

"I am an incurable optimist and I believe people can change," Jablecki recently told a group of new students he is teaching at Brazosport College. "All of us have the capacity to become better people."

Standing with his back to a large white grease board bearing the Socrates quote, "The unexamined life is not worth living," Jablecki told his students what he expects them to learn in the coming months.

"The most important thing that all of us have to struggle with on a daily basis is being a decent person. For the most part, you see the world only through your own eyes. You have to learn to see the world through the eyes of other people," Jablecki told his students on the first day of class. "Once you become a reflective person, you're on the road to becoming a decent person."

A 28-year-old Oyster Creek resident recently convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Lance Boomhower appeared attentive and eager on this first day of class.

"I love the idea of being able to look at things philosophically," Boomhower said. "I wasn't offered the opportunity to go to college."

And while he doubts the family of the girl who died in his truck one night when he decided to drive after drinking too much liquor will ever forgive him, Boomhower said he sees the program as a way to become a better person and contribute to society.

"To her parents, there is no justice for me," Boomhower said. "From their perspective, if I keep going the way I'm going, I'll receive no justice."

Like Jablecki, Judge May said he was willing to take a chance on the program, even though the pair will likely draw raised eyebrows from those who believe criminals should be dealt with more harshly.

"I think everybody looks for things that work. And to me, it was worth the risk of criticism," May said. "It appears to be -- at least in some lives -- gaining a positive benefit."

To teach his first class, Jablecki approached one of the area's most seasoned educators and asked Carolyn Huff, a retired high school teacher with 32 years of experience, to handle the class. Huff said she did not hesitate before accepting the challenge.

"It seemed to me more worthwhile than having the probationers pick up trash on the roadside," said Huff, who teaches the class for free. "We have a lasting impression on their thinking. I was astounded at the amount of ability they had."

Huff said she plans to continue teaching the courses as long as she is needed.

Waxler, whose program has graduated hundreds of Massachusetts probationers, said he believes the project will continue to thrive in Brazoria County under Jablecki's direction.

"The advice I would give him is twofold," Waxler said. "Keep the energy and enthusiasm as high as possible. There is a need to believe in what you're doing and to have the energy to do it. There are always people who are very skeptical about a program like this. There are a lot of people who believe the only way to fight crime is to build prisons."

Like Waxler, Judge Kane said Jablecki appears up to the challenges the literature program will present in the coming years.

"If we had Larry Jableckis across the country, we wouldn't have any problems," Kane said. "I just am struck with his continuing optimism."

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Distributed by The Associated Press