Criminology center nabs U.K. grant

Penn's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology will receive a $1.6 million grant from the British government to test a radical rehabilitation program on criminals as an alternative to a prison sentence, in hopes that it will have a positive impact on their lives.

The treatment may include community service or drug treatment, under the provision that if the participants do not complete the program, they may be convicted and imprisoned.

The Restorative Justice as a Diversion from Prosecution program was developed in the United Kingdom and will be carried out at Penn with the cooperation of Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations and Chairman of the Department of Criminology Lawrence Sherman.

"It's a really incredible opportunity because the British government is quite serious about testing radical new ideas," Sherman said. "The prospect that people who might otherwise go to prison could be diverted from that path ... is not something you would see in the United States right now."

The program is based on a new law approved by the British Parliament last year, and the work planned to take place on campus will be the first time such a program is tested in the United States. The results from this trial will constitute the largest body of data that has ever been gathered about one particular type of treatment program for criminals.

President of both the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology Foundation and B101-FM radio Jerry Lee was excited about the restorative justice program because it may provide a better solution than imprisonment.

"We keep going from fad to fad to fad, and we never really find out what works," Lee said. "The mission of the Jerry Lee Foundation is to put a stake in the ground and find out what really works ... one step at a time. Eventually, you will have the answers of what works in the criminal justice system."

The program is only allowed to be tried under controlled conditions, which is one of the reasons why Penn was chosen as the institution to carry out the experiment.

The program will include people who are convicted of a range of crimes and are facing a short prison term.

"People who have been in serious assault situations -- very often under the influence of alcohol -- people who have been in burglary or auto theft situations and who may be [facing] up to two or three years in prison would be offered a chance to do something they've never done before," Sherman said.

The program involves "meeting with the victims, coming up with some agreement about how [the offenders] could try to repair the harm they've caused," Sherman said.

"It's kind of a second chance, but with a very emotionally powerful two- or three-hour meeting with the victim's family and their own family, to look at their lives and see how they might turn it around," Sherman added.

Lee said the only way to determine the best course of action for criminals is to test different methods of treatment, adding that he is hopeful that the restorative justice program will be successful at Penn.

"If we could find a way of dealing with crime that is as effective as prison, costs less and causes less harm to people's lives in terms of the disruption of prison, it would be a great boost for humanity, and it's my number one project and one that I will probably be working on for the next 30 years."

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