Evaluating Thinking for a Change within Washington Prisons: Reformational Paternalism as the Fruits of Mass Incarceration and Neoliberal Approaches to Criminal Justice

Abstract

This paper evaluates the Thinking for a Change program in Washington State prisons in the context of the Criminal Justice System's broader Political and Economic dynamics. In the latter half of the 20th century, the political landscape in America saw a rise in the number of incarcerated individuals due to more prolonged and harsher sentencing reforms; this, along with the spread of austerity and paternalistic neoliberalism, disproportionately affects marginalized groups such as BIPOC, the poor, substance-abusing populations, and the mentally ill. The concentration of various needs in the carceral system has led to the coalescing of government functions, academic research, and medical and mental health care provision. Interventions such as Thinking for a Change integrate knowledge from these fields. However, a lack of sociological understanding of the criminal justice system's perpetuation and harsh punishment of poverty, combined with a narrow definition of "success," hinders our ability to provide necessary services to the incarcerated population. By contextualizing Thinking for a Change and improving on past research, this project introduces alternative considerations of how paternalism and poverty governance manifest and considers the consequences of the widening net for the center of it.