What Is the Redirected Lives Project on E.T. Margolis's Site?

Updated

Redirected Lives is a project Dr. Eliezer T. Margolis launched after volunteer teaching at Mount Tamalpais College inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (formerly San Quentin State Prison). According to his site, the project grew out of his attempt to understand how rehabilitation actually works inside what he calls the "behavioral ecology of prison." The site presents it as an active project with a linked pitch document, but does not describe its programming, partners, or current status in detail.

Where the project came from

The site ties the project's origin to a specific teaching timeline:

  • Dr. Margolis began volunteer teaching at Mount Tamalpais College in the Spring 2022 semester.
  • He continued for another five semesters after that first term.
  • He brought his training and experience as a rehabilitation psychologist to the classroom, using that lens to study the rehabilitation process specific to prison life.

That classroom experience, rather than a formal research program, is what the site identifies as the motivation for spearheading Redirected Lives.

What the project is trying to do

The site frames the project around a question rather than a service: how rehabilitation operates within the behavioral ecology of a prison. Dr. Margolis's background shapes that framing. He maintained an independent rehabilitation psychology practice in Evanston, Illinois, from October 1, 1992 to July 1, 2013, working with adults facing chronic or serious medical illness, trauma, physical disability, sexual difficulty, and death and dying. He also specialized in working with people whose central nervous systems were affected by brain injury or other neurological problems.

Redirected Lives applies that rehabilitation-psychology perspective to a carceral setting. The site describes the project as one he spearheaded and points readers to a pitch document for more detail, but the excerpt available here does not summarize the document's contents.

How it fits with his other work

Redirected Lives sits alongside two other commitments the site lists under Current Projects:

Project or role What the site says
Harm To Healing Collaborative In October 2025, Dr. Margolis accepted an invitation to join the board of directors. The organization has provided rehabilitation programming in San Quentin State Prison as the Transformative Justice Institute for more than 20 years, and facilitates restorative justice dialogues, circles, and structured programs for people who have been harmed, those who have caused harm, and parties in conflict.
Redirected Lives Emerged from his volunteer teaching at Mount Tamalpais College starting Spring 2022; uses a rehabilitation psychology lens to understand prison-specific rehabilitation.
The Returning Wealth Philanthropic Fund A donor advised fund administered by the Jewish Communal Fund of New York, which he began directing in 1994. Early objectives were supporting American Indian education and environmental organizations; since 2016 its chief mission has been supporting "peace camp" organizations.

The common thread is rehabilitation in the carceral context, which the site names directly as one of the areas he has focused on since retiring from active practice as a licensed psychologist.

What the site does not tell you

If you are looking for specifics before deciding whether to follow up, note what is missing from the available page content:

  • No description of Redirected Lives activities, curriculum, participants, or outcomes.
  • No dates for the project beyond the teaching timeline that inspired it.
  • No indication of whether the project is ongoing, paused, or in planning.
  • No contact route specific to the project; the site has a general Contact section.

For anyone researching prison rehabilitation programs or considering collaboration, the pitch document linked from the site is the logical next step, since the homepage itself only establishes the project's origin and rationale.