Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people are proving skeptics wrong by transforming themselves through self-help and self-discovery programs.
“I paroled from San Quentin nearly 10 years ago. The reason I haven’t relapsed back into my previous criminal behavior is because I delved into the self-help groups San Quentin provided, and I made victim awareness my sole focus,” Francisco Gonzalez said via telephone.
In-person rehabilitative programs in prison, from Anger Management to the Victim Offender Education Group (VOEG), have given incarcerated individuals an in-depth understanding of the impact crime has on victims and victim’s families.
However, some anti-reformists, such as police unions and many district attorneys, have said that “too often the focus is on reforming the criminal, excluding those who have been harmed.”
Conversely, that is far from the truth for the thousands of reformed criminals (men and women) who believe that it is their duty to pay it forward for the harm they have caused their victim(s) and their communities.
San Quentin is the only California prison to host over 50 rehabilitative programs that give great weight to victim awareness and criminal thinking.
“Before prison I lived my life by the rules of the streets, which meant I didn’t care about anyone other than myself and my gang.” said Jorge Rodriguez. “The day I discovered the words “character defects,” my life changed forever.”
Although self-help and self-discovery is not required for many prisoners, it is helpful in determining the “who” and “why” they committed their crime.
“I have spent decades working on changing who I was that tragic day,” said Rodriguez. “I had no understanding of who I was — only of who I portrayed myself to be.”
Many survivors of crime believe that criminals will never be more than the crime(s) they’ve committed.
“After years of self-discovery, victim awareness classes, and mindful thinking, I was able to root out the cause and effects of my criminal thinking, proving skeptics wrong,” said Leonard Graham, a former prisoner and current advocate for prisoner rights.
A comparison of rehabilitation data for determinate (non-lifers) versus Indeterminate (life-term) persons indicates that an incarcerated person’s story does not end once criminal proceedings have ended.
For example, during the fiscal year 2015-16 (the last year of available data), CDCR adult recidivism statistics showed that of 23,812 non-life-term prisoners, 5,486 returned to prison — and of 751 life term prisoners, only 24 returned. A return rate of 23.0% and 3.2%, respectively.
“They [society] don’t know how hard nor how many years I’ve spent changing the way I think. Today I finally know who I am thanks to self-help groups,” said Rodriguez. “I am a totally different person today than I was when I committed my crime. All I want people to do is see me for the man I am today and not the criminal I was years ago.”
Graham added, “The self-help groups I took in prison helped me to understand why I wasn’t able to view my victims humanely and why I caused them so much hurt and trauma.”
Federal data indicate 4 of 10 incarcerated persons surveyed experienced some sort of mental health issue relating to criminality, according to Shared Safety Solutions.
“Mental health can be seen in nearly every crime you witness on your daily newscast, especially and particularly during instances where police officers goad an apparently mentally disturbed person into a fatal situation,” said Sabrina Porter, a mental health advocate.
“There needs to be a system in place to bring more awareness to the signs of mental illness. When a person who is going through a mental health crisis approaches law enforcement holding a knife, it should be apparent to trained responders that there are mental instabilities present,” Porter insists.
For many prisoners like Rodriguez, who discovered self-awareness and empathy for others, programming was their first introduction to rehabilitation and to making living amends on their road to redemption.
