A Positive New Program that has come to Okaloosa C.I.
Creative writing is a
skill with wide-ranging applications in education, employment, and daily life,
including the development of critical thinking skills. The Creative Writing Club of Okaloosa C. I. held its first
class November 4, 2013, and has completed nineteen classes in the past four
months. Sgt. Worrell sponsors the meetings. Inmate Instructor Charles Norman
has conducted a variety of writing programs over the past thirty years.
Classes are limited to
about fifteen students, with a waiting list, and are held in the Re-entry
Classroom, although inmates from any housing area are eligible to attend.
Classes are taught in modules, including Introduction to Creative Writing,
Poetry Workshop, Fiction Workshop, Memoirs and Creative Non-Fiction. Students
are required to complete weekly writing assignments.
It is a well-proven fact
that education reduces recidivism by high double-digit percentages, and the
Creative Writing Club fits into the goals of the Re-entry Program. Response has
been enthusiastic.
Materials and supplies are
donated. The PEN American
Center in New York City, an international literary society that, among other programs, sponsors prison writing programs in all fifty
states, donated copies of their Handbook
For Writers In Prison.
The program is ongoing.
Charlie
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