It's Time to Turn the Corner

This week I watched another prisoner be cuffed and taken to the hole (segregation). He was in the vocational trades program, so he is within a year or so of paroling from prison. Or at least he was. Apparently he thought it would be worth the risk to buy some spud juice (prison wine) from another unit and sneak it back to his room. He wasn't so sneaky after all. I don't know what he was written up for, whether he will be returning to the unit, or what his consequences will be. The point is that within just months of leaving prison, he's putting his freedom in jeopardy, for a little disgusting hooch. 

The sad thing is that this prisoner is not alone. I overhear conversations almost daily about escapades other prisoners are planning when they leave prison. Of course, these plans nearly always include some form of criminal activity, usually involving drugs. And many of these same men are not waiting until they leave prison to continue their criminal ways. It's sad, and it's discouraging. Most of these men have only served short stints in prison, and yes, I mean stints plural. The prisoners serving longer terms are the ones who are less likely to maintain this criminal mentality. 

So, what's the difference? Why are prisoners who serve long prison sentences less likely than those serving short sentences to commit crimes after leaving prison? The primary reason is what I heard a business owner who came to speak to us prisoners call "turning the corner." Regardless of what crime someone committed, if they have not "turned the corner" while in prison, they are more likely to commit more crimes after leaving prison. Turning the corner, of course, is a euphemism for having a change of heart. 

The DOC has a program mandated for some prisoners called "Thinking for a Change." As with most DOC programs, this is perplexingly only available to prisoners who are close to going home. That means whatever skills they teach about changing one's thinking were not likely employed throughout a prisoner's sentence. Old thinking patterns were simply adapted to new circumstances. Thus, prisoners commonly obsess over drugs, drink, money, women, and notoriety. No amount of programming, though, is going to change a person's mind or heart. For that to happen, the prisoner must want to change. 

The desire to change is often followed by self-directed rehabilitation. This usually takes the form of seeking, seeking new knowledge, new wisdom, new self-awareness, new religious or spiritual insight. These seekers are often the ones who try to eat well, keep their bodies healthy, and their minds sharp. Other behaviors change, too. They often begin building other disciplines in their lives. They watch less TV, read more books, take programming and educational opportunities, learn new skills or hobbies, exercise more, write more, and focus on repairing broken relationships instead of using people in their lives. 

Most of the time these seekers, the ones who turn the corner, go on to live productive lives, safe in society. A few return to their vomit, as the Proverb says. And sometimes those who haven't turned a corner do so after leaving prison. Many do not. Religous devotion, education, and strong family support all increase the odds a prisoner will "turn the corner," but there's no magic formula. It boils down to what Thomas Aquinas called "rightly ordered desires." You have to want what living a just life gives you more than whatever the temporary pleasure of prison wine, or some other vice, brings.