Attention Mass Media! This Deserves Investigation!

A self-styled anti-recidivist claims he can teach any criminal how to become a successful citizen, provided the person wants to change.

"Desire to change sparks personal transformation ," this North Carolina based anti-recidivist declared, "and if the person desires to change, we can provide the teaching, training and the emotional and mental 'tools' to accomplish just that."

Milton C. Jordan, Sr., 68, has scheduled the official program launch for the four Saturdays in August when he presents an introduction to the five-year curriculum in a series of daylong workshops at St. Joseph AME Church in Durham where he also serves on the congregation's ministerial staff.

"We're seeking about 120 recidivists to come to Durham on those Saturdays--30 each day--and participate in this workshop series," Jordan explained. "Registration opens each Saturday at 8am. Sessions begin at 9am and continue to 5pm, with hourly breaks and a one hour fifteen minute lunch break. We will videotape these sessions and they will become the DVDs we use to introduce other enrollees to the program."

According to Jordan, any of these participants who qualify will receive the five year course free of charge.

On his website, Jordan also offers a $1,000 discount to the first 5,000 retail enrollees. These participants will pay just $620 for the five-year course, provided they can pay in advance.

All enrollees must qualify, according to Jordan, by passing what he refers to as a rigorous assessment process. release these inmates to reduce overcrowded conditions. The California prison system has a capacity for about 80,000 inmates, and currently incarcerates more than 140,000 men and women

Jordan's program is not free for prison systems. At $50 per inmate per year, the California price tag, for example, would be $4 million.

"Each inmate who enrolls at the system's expense must simultaneously contract to complete and pay for the final three years of the program, following the person's release," Jordan explained. "Since the program retails for $27 per month, or a total of $1,620 for five years, the California releasees will pay $972 to complete the course."

Jordan also challenged the prison systems in North Carolina and South Carolina to combine their efforts and target collectively 20,000 inmates with no more than two years remaining on their prison sentences and enroll them in this five-year course. At $150 per inmate, the price tag for the two Carolinas prison systems would be $3 million.

"We reserve our best pricing strategies for state and federal prisons that contract with us to teach and train large numbers of inmates who will be released in two years," Jordan explained. "We want to work with men and women

"We use this assessment to test the level of a person's desire to change. We look for a willingness to commit to and cooperate with the arduous process and an understanding of why a change activist should communicate openly and truthfully with their mentor." Jordan said. "We will not enroll individuals who cannot demonstrate a desire to change."

Additionally, Jordan recently challenged three state corrections systems to test his claims.

In California, for example, Jordan says he wants his team to teach and train the 40,000 inmates the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation must release during the next 24 months. This mandate develops from a US Supreme Court decision in May 2011 that upheld a lower court decision that ordered the state prison system in California to currently incarcerated, as well as recidivists who are currently released and want to never return to prison."

According to Jordan, the program's rate card of prices for state and federal prison systems is as follows:

• 10,000 inmates at $175 per person
• 20,000 inmates at $150 per person
• 30,000 inmates at $75 per person
• 40,000 inmates at $50 per person

Why charge for a program designed to help people change?

"When a person does not invest in a process the person perceives no value in the process," Jordan said, "and when there's no perception of value, the person lacks incentive to perform the hard work of learning and doing."

So what should citizens in California, the Carolinas or any other state pay the initial two year price tag?"

"First of all," Jordan explained, "it's the difference between cost and investment. Citizens currently pay all the costs of the criminal justice system, from the time the crime victim triggers it into action until the criminal is released to repeat the vicious cycle. We propose a small investment on the front end in exchange for a huge Return On Investment on the back end."

Jordan quickly adds that the consideration of the investment should include an understanding of the potential return.

"For example," he explained. "We have said that we will achieve a 90 percent success rate in California, or a total of 36,000 men and women who will become law-abiding and successful citizens. Let's look at one level of ROI for one former inmate. It costs an estimated $48,500 annually to incarcerate a person in California. When that person exits crime and does not serve time, California taxpayers experience a savings of $242,500 for the five years. Now multiply that by 36,000 former inmates and the ROI is astounding."

Yet, according to Jordan, that's not the only ROI.

"Let estimate conservatively that each of these men and women earn, after taxes, $2,500 per month," Jordan said. "That totals $150,000 for each person for five years, or a total of $5.4 billion added to the California economy by these 36,000 men and women who have transformed from criminals to change conquerors. Factor in our unconditional guarantee and Californians cannot lose on this investment because we will refund the complete training cost for any person who is actively involved in our process and who returns to prison within the five years that they're participating in our program."

So who is this man making such bold public claims? What credentials does he bring to the table.

As he describes his background, Jordan said he began stealing when he was five-years-old and did something criminal almost every day for 20 years, even during his times in prison. Incarcerated for the first time when he was 16-years-old, Jordan said that he spent all but 22 months of the 1960s in prison. Released on Dec. 9, 1968, Jordan summarized his accomplishments as having broken the crime habit, earned an ever-free life and having achieved his crime and prison records into insignificance.

Some of his accomplishments include the following:

• A journalist with stints at two North Carolina daily newspapers. The Wilmington Morning Star and the Charlotte Observer.
• An adjunct instructor at two North Carolina universities "Campbell in Buies Creek and North Carolina Central in Durham. He has also taught at several community colleges in North Carolina.
• A television public affairs program producer and host and manager of a FM radio station, both in Wilmington, (NC) as well as an advertising account executive with a radio station in Fayetteville, (NC).
• A fulltime free-lance writer, with work published in numerous national, regional and local publications.
• A home business owner since 1979.

Currently, Jordan works as executive teacher/trainer of KOG Unity PLUS Ekklesia Ministries, Inc. which he describes as a cyberspace Christian congregation. He launched the congregation on Dec. 9, 2010. He lives in Durham, NC