Helping Yourself and Others Begins with the Truth!

Those of you who read my articles on transformation from crime to contribution know that I began my walk along the change continuum almost 40 years ago--Dec. 8, 1968. You also know much about my perspective on how that process begins, continues and concludes with successful transformation, when an individual achieves the arduous trek from crime to contribution. For reference, please read: Tired of Prison? Break the crime habit; Prison: a college of crime or a school of change, Parts 1 and 2; Can an ex-con become a professional writer? Can an ex-con become a college professor and My trek from crime to contribution, Parts 1 and 2.
With that background, consider a recent conversation during a planning meeting for a conference on helping criminals make the transformation from crime to contribution.
One of the sub-committee members asked if, in the interest of uniformity, the Group would agree to ban the use of the word criminal by program facilitators, panel moderators, presenters and other speakers.
I refused to agree! I offered a compromise that was not received enthusiastically. I suggestedd that I use a term I coined more than 30-years ago: change activists.
Let me explain eight terms as I have come to understand them over the past 40 years.
Crime is a way of thinking that justifies harming others for self-gain. Criminals, who are the only stakeholders who can reduce crime, believe it is all right to harm others for self-gain. Crime response professionals, aka criminal justice officials, who must learn to become change advocates. Citizens include crime victims, as well as the families and loved ones of criminals, pay the entire crime bill. Citizens must learn to demand a more equitable Return On Investment. Change from criminal to contributor is the only equitable return on such a huge investment.. Careerists, who make hiring decisions, must learn to discern between changing and conning. In other words, is the criminal being interviewed for a job in the early stages of total transformation, or trying to con you out of job as "cover" for more crime? Change advocates are citizens who play active roles in supporting the change process in change activists. Change activists are criminals who become actively involved in the process of changing their thinking. Change conquerors are those who began this journey as criminals and made the arduous trek from crime to contribution.
I coined these terms to describe specifically and accurately the process of change as I lived it. Even though I wanted to stay out of prison the day officials released me, wanted a job, etc., I was not yet a change activist. Fortunately, because I began the change process about 1966, I had progressed to the "former criminal" stage.
Therefore, as I use these terms, I am not trying to demean or disrespect anyone. I am not being harsh or offensive. Rather, I want to share with all stakeholders the process as I have lived it. Most importantly, I want to help others who must make this transformation to not become stereotyped. Stereotype means literally to be frozen in time. The term ex-offender, ex-convict, inmate, etc. are both imprecise and stereotypical.
Consider the stages of "offender." The police arrest a "suspect," and charge the person with violating a specific statute. Subsequently, the court convicts the person. We refer to that person as a "first" offender. What does this mean? Do we mean that we believe this specific offense was the first the individual committed, or do we mean this was just the first time the system apprehended, charged and convicted the individual. The court sentences this individual to prison and we label him or her an inmate. That means, literally, the convicted individual resides in prison with others (mates). Well, what if the court sentences the person to probation. Professionals refer to that individual as a probationer. So who do we imprison? Individuals apprehended, charged and convicted of committing offenses against specific statutes. What do we call those offenses? Crimes, of course. So, how should we refer to persons who commit such offenses?
Okay, let's go to the other end of the prison sentence. Officials release the "inmate" because the court sanction reaches an "release-date." Well, the individual is no longer an inmate. But is the person an ex-offender? Not necessarily! If you apply the term "offender" to the commission of crimes for which the individual was convicted, nothing, including serving a prison sentence changes that. For example, in 1963, I pleaded guilty to the charge, or offense, of common law robbery. I was guilty. I went back to prison. Nothing changes that! Well, does ex-offender mean the prison no longer commits crimes? Obviously, we cannot say definitively on the release date that this person will not offend--violate a legal statute--again.
So what terms do we use to describe individuals who commit crimes? Is it correct and accurate to refer to these individuals as criminals? Is it disrespectful? Is the term "criminal" stereotypical? I wrestled with these questions daily during the first 15 years of my transformation.
As I confronted these challenges, I learned the following: crime is a way of thinking that justifies harming others to gain for self. Then I learned from Proverbs 23:7 that as a man thinks so is he. I concluded, then, that if I spent most of my time thinking about doing crime, I was criminal.
Now how do I get from there to becoming a community contributor?
Over the years, I learned that the process includes the following stages: former criminal--a person who continues thinking about crime, but who has learned to control yielding to the impulse to commit crime; change activist--a person who works daily for mental and emotional transformation; change conqueror--a person who successfully moves from doing crime to making community contributions.
These four stages--criminal, former criminal, change activist and change conqueror--describe a step-by-step process to transformation. As far as I know. a person serious about transformtion cannot avoid this process or skip its steps. In other words, a criminal cannot become a change activist without moving through the former criminal stage. I also learned that well-meaning "supporters"who refuse to accept that criminal thinking triggers criminal actions both hobble criminals who want to change and become easily conned by criminals who do not desire transformation.
Therefore, I conclude that criminals who want to change must first acknowledge and confront the thinking that generates the anti-community behavior. Consider this analogy. Recently, after a five-day hospital stay, I learned that I suffer with atrial fibrillation, congestive heart disease and a dangerously elevated blood pressure. What if, instead of confronting this truth, I convinced myself that I all I had was a couple of minor chest problems. Maybe that sounds better, less traumatic and potentially fatal, but it could also lead me to ignoring the radical, revolutionary steps I had to take to manage these illnesses.
We who have made, or who want to make this arduous trek from crime to contribution must, in my judgment, avoid euphemisms in our quest for transfromation.
The dictionary defines euphemism as " . . .the act or example of using a mild, indirect or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive."
Please note that using an euphemism does not change the facts! If I murder, I am a murderer. When I steal, I am a thief. Do I have to be a murderer or a thief all my life? Yes! As surely as the dead person remains always murdered, the prepetrator remains a murderer.
Nevertheless, there's good news beyond what some might consider the bad news. The challenges of transformation include the following milestones: breaking the crime habit, earning an ever-free life, and achieving the criminal record into insignificance.
As I moved along the change continuum, I broke my crime habit, and replaced it with habits of community contribution. As I continued growing, spiritually and mentally, I earned the right to be free all my life. Finally, after almost 40 years of transformation, I have achieved my crime and prison records into insignificance.
Yes, there might be other ways to achieve these milestones, to progress through this four stage process. But today I believe that to euphemize the word "criminal" in discussing this process hampers those who must begin and continue this process.
A person becomes empowered to change, as I understand the process, when he or she begins, continues and succeeds by accepting accurate truth, no matter how harsh those facts.
Let me know what you think.