Just Sentences: Human rights to enable participation and equity for prisoners and all

Abstract

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights holds up the right to opinion and expression for all. Just Sentences was a prison-based language-literacy pilot project for men, delivered by a speech-language pathologist in Tasmania, Australia. The pilot provided input into the various interpretative permutations of “just sentences”. It enabled skills of opinion and expression. This commentary takes language and social reciprocity to be privileged drivers of personal agency and pro-social personal freedom. It notes the role of hope as an agent of positive change, including in desistance from crime. It describes the project and shares the reflections of the speech-language pathologist who delivered it.

Keywords:

• Article 19
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• United Nations
• criminology
• prison
• crime
• reciprocity
• agency
• speech-language pathology
• healing

Declaration of interest

There are no real or potential conflicts of interest related to the manuscript.