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An Interview with Marcella Hardt
by Dale Raben
Reprinted from the Progoff™ Criminal Justice Newsletter Fall 2005, Issue 1.
Marcella Hardt, a certified leader of the Intensive Journal program for over 25 years, began her work in prison
programs in 1993 with Dr. Harvey Shrum, an educational psychologist and pre-parole coordinator at Folsom
State Prison. Marcella currently leads workshops at California State Prison in Sacramento, where she works
with men serving life sentences. We interviewed Marcella about her experiences with the inmates
M.H.: I tell them what the potential of the Intensive Journal method is, but that it’s up to them to participate. Once one of them reads what they’ve written, all of them want to read and I have to start watching my time! Once that door is cracked open, they feel safe and they feel that there’s something for them to gain if they put themselves into it.
D.R.: Do the inmates continue to use the Intensive Journal method after the workshops?M.H.: The inmates are given the option to put their workbooks in a safe after the workshop is over, but they all choose to keep their workbooks with them. When the men get in a really tight place, they tell me about using the method get out of it. They just know the workbook is there and that they can go to it any time and their own deeper self will speak to them.
D.R.: Is the Intensive Journal method an effective tool for the prisoners?M.H.: Oh yes. Those prisoners are in there because they made very bad decisions out of anger. The structure of the Intensive Journal workbook provides them with a way to see, if only for a few moments, that there is something else inside them that wants to come out. For many of the men, it might just be about one realization that comes to them during a workshop. Once that door is opened, it can never be shut again. The Intensive Journal process gives them a way to channel their aggression.
D.R.: Have you seen a change in the behavior of the inmates as a result of the Intensive Journal program? What are those changes?M.H.: It is remarkable to me to see the lifers respond the way they do. At that stage, they’ve given up in a lot of ways, but it’s amazing to see what they start doing to help each other once they realize they’re not an enemy to themselves, so others aren’t enemies to them. They’ve done things to change their own environment, like starting music groups and poetry readings. It’s very heartwarming when you see that connection beginning to happen. I realize it doesn’t seem like the best investment when you’re working with lifers, but that’s not true. To get a different atmosphere in the prison is very important. It’s work they can do themselves, that no one can do for them.
D.R.: Are there any exceptional individual cases of change you can tell us about?
M.H.: Inmates tell me that the Intensive Journal
program opened doors in themselves that had never
been opened before. One man, a lifer in his 20s, shook
my hand at the end of a workshop and, with tears in
his eyes, told me he’ll always remember that I
introduced him to a tool where he could look inside
and realize he actually liked the guy he saw. He
realized he could be a unique individual and make
choices about how he responds to his environment.
His reaction was typical of many of the inmates who
realized, “My life does count and I do need to hear
what it’s trying to say to me.”
Another lifer was a great inspiration to the
program. Having no fear of what his fellow inmates
would think, he was the first to read aloud from his
workbook during the Steppingstones exercise, thus
opening the door for others. He realized that the
method helped him gain a broader perspective on his
whole life and that life had a different meaning than
what he had thought. He kept insisting that the
program be made available for others because of what
he’d received from it and was very sensitive to other
inmates who realized they wanted to participate.
He was the prime instigator of music groups and
support groups in the prison. He got men of different ethnic backgrounds to play music together, which
they had never dared to do before.
M.H.: I have a sort of thrill that goes through me when I see what happens in these workshops and think, if the program can do this much for these prisoners, then what can it do for everyone else in the world? This is a tool where we’re all hungry to get to the truth of ourselves. It makes the individual count. To see them giving each other big hugs at the workshops, without any words needing to be said, is so touching. They found meaning in their lives regardless of the little facts and details.
"Intensive Journal" and "Journal Feedback" are trademarks of Jon Progoff and used under license by Dialogue House.