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Emotional literacy in prisons and reentry

Where 10P began: a maximum-security yard, men serving life, and the discovery that rehabilitation is a literacy.

By Samual Nathaniel Brown Last reviewed 2026-10-25 2 min read

Illustration of a Black man walking through an open gate into morning light toward family.

Emotional literacy in prisons and reentry refers to programs that teach incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people — 10P calls them carceral scholars — to read and respond to emotion as the foundation of rehabilitation.

Why prisons

The people inside American prisons carry exceptionally high rates of trauma. Research with incarcerated adults finds childhood and adult trauma to be common,1 and young people in the juvenile justice system report adverse childhood experiences at far higher rates than the general population.2 In 10P's own interviews inside, every person was "a casualty before they were an offender."

The Theory of Emotional Illiteracy-Based Criminality (TEIBC) explains why that matters: if criminality is a coping mechanism for unprocessed trauma, then punishment alone leaves the cause untouched. Emotional literacy addresses it directly.

The 10P model

10P began in 2014 at New Folsom, a maximum-security prison, as a curriculum written by a man serving a life sentence for the men around him. Its programs now include:

  • B.E.L.T. — Bridging Emotional Literacy and Transition, a 32-week curriculum that brings families into the self-help process alongside people inside.
  • THE BRAIN Project, independent-study courses for people in restrictive housing, mental-health units or anyone not ready for groups.
  • Parole preparation, helping people articulate insight into their past, their triggers and their change — the very skills a parole board looks for.

What the evidence shows

Cognitive-behavioral programs, which share emotional literacy's focus on noticing and changing responses, reduce recidivism; a meta-analysis of 58 studies found the most effective programs cut reoffending by roughly half.3 Emotional-literacy programming builds on that evidence by putting feeling-reading first.

Coming home

Reentry is an emotional event as much as a logistical one: reconnecting with family, managing shame and stigma, handling freedom after years of control. 10P's family model trains families and returning citizens together so the skills learned inside survive the gate.

  1. Wolff, N., & Shi, J. (2012). Childhood and adult trauma experiences of incarcerated persons. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 9(5), 1908–1926. doi:10.3390/ijerph9051908 ↑

  2. Baglivio, M. T., et al. (2014). The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in the lives of juvenile offenders. OJJDP Journal of Juvenile Justice, 3(2). ojp.gov ↑

  3. Landenberger, N. A., & Lipsey, M. W. (2005). The positive effects of cognitive–behavioral programs for offenders. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1, 451–476. doi:10.1007/s11292-005-3541-7 ↑

Put this into practice

10P Program B.E.L.T. — Bridging Emotional Literacy and Transition A 32-week emotional-literacy curriculum built from lived experience, delivered inside California prisons and in the community. Explore 10P programs

See also

Cite this entry: Samual Nathaniel Brown. “Emotional literacy in prisons and reentry.” The Emotional Literacy Encyclopedia, 10P Program, 2026-10-25. https://emotionalliteracy.org/encyclopedia/emotional-literacy-in-prisons-and-reentry/

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