Teaching People to Change is Cheaper Than Keeping Them in Prison

The day I met and talked with Babe Dillard in prison was the first day I started thinking about the possibility of changing and I didn't really know then from crime to what. A few days later when prison officials in North Carolina transferred me to Odom Prison Farm in Jackson County, my thoughts of change intensified.

Odom was then and is still a close custody correctional facility, which means, among other things, that attack dogs patrol the compound's double fences, and with correctional officers inside. Close custody also means a daily regimen of indignities, ranging from grueling farm work to body cavity searches that steal more and more of your humanity day-by-day. I will spare you the gory details, but just know that anyone with a semblance of humanity left will seriously consider changing rather than continue these indignities.

This is not to say that change is easy because I made parole from Odom in 1965 and went to Washington, North Carolina where I worked for a while as a hospital orderly, and then got a really good job in a Pitt County Consolidated School, working under the auspieces of a federal grant. Even though I wanted to change, to stay out of prison, I simply didn't know how. I also didn't know that dumb initiatives like marrying the wrong woman, particularly in light of my volatile temper, was figuratively me pounding on the prison's doors. So in 1966, less than a year after making parole, I returned to prison.

About December 1966, I learned that I would complete my 7-9 year sentence on December 9, 1968. I was simultaneously scared and elated. I was elated by the possibility of being released again. Yet, the probability of returning to prison scared me. By this time, I had been promoted to honor grade and transferred from Odom to the small prison camp in Creswell, North Carolina. Now eligible for work release, I got a job with a bridge maintenance crew.

By now, my Babe Dillard epiphany experience had turned into an actual analysis of how to get out of prison and not return.

I stumbled upon the revelation that I had to change in at least four ways. I had to renounce my former lifestyle and criminal cohorts. I had to accept full and personal responsibilities for all of my stupidities and dumb decisions. I had to somehow learn how to transform from the inside out, and finally I had to learn how to sustain the change process under some of the most trying circumstances imaginable.

By analogy, incarcerated inmates can be likened to a wolfpack. As long as all the wolves are "healthy," the pack runs together, hunts together, hangs out together, etc. If a wolf in the pack becomes wounded, however, the other wolves devour that one. By beginning the change process in prison, I began to look and "smell" like a wounded "wolf" in the cellblock. I needed knowledge that I didn't have. I needed guidance and support that was unavailable.

My wife, who I had tried to beat to death, which was what triggered my parole violation, certainly had no inclination to help. My aunt in Durham was too old and sickly. Her son, my cousin, was too alcoholic. My mother in Virginia was just too weary.

I know that many of you probably feel the same--too weary, too hurt, too disenchanted, too often disappointed, and believe me, I understand. But please bear with me, as I make a pragmatic appeal.

What if your incarcerated relative could learn how to change, starting now, three to four years before a scheduled release date. What If you could learn how to be both an advocate and a catalyst for change, and help criminal begin and continue the change to contribution? Just as importantly, what it you had to invest just pennies per day?

Click here and read about the Change Continuum and the 40 powerful principles that govern the personal growth and development a person can experience in this process.

For almost 39 years now I have tried and tested these principles. I know they work. I have learned how to teach them, and help any individual who really wants to change learn how to use them. They operative term is: "really want to change." No, I didn't discover these principles. I learned about them! They have existed forever. They work! I unconditionally guarantee it!

I believe I am my own best evidence of these principles' power to transform lives. When I got out of prison in December 1968, I was a high school dropout, with relatively few marketable skills. The barriers notwithstanding, I had a Transformation Plan.

I had a vision: I saw myself as a professional writer, writing for local, regional and national publications. Of course, I didn't see myself writing on the Internet back then because this medium was not yet a dream. I began writing professionally--getting paid for it--during the Spring of 1969 and by the summer of 1971, I was working for my first daily newspaper--The Wilmington Star-News. Three years later, I became a staff writer with The Charlotte Observer, North Carolina's largest newspaper. Now with 38 years of professional writing experience, I've been published in scores of national, regional and local publications. Today, it's the internet! Who knows about tomorrow?

I had a mission: I will serve this self-imposed "life" sentence in freedom, without parole, or time incarcerated for bad behavior.

I had a philosophy: "I believe that I have incredible potential, and can break the crime habit. I believe I can earn an ever-free life. I believe I can achieve my crime and prison background into insignificance.

I had a set of objectives, along with accompanying strategies. I had a communications factor I could use to convey my change continuum plan to others, particularly those whose help I needed.

Now, after living the process for almost 40 years, I have a curriculum! I learned curriculum planning during a 10-year teaching stint at Campbell University where I designed the print media program for the Communications Department. Hands-on, experiential learning has been the hallmark of these nearly 40 years of change.

So let's do this! The potential appears to be outstanding. As I wrote in another AC article, about 50,000 criminals leave state and federal prisons across this nation and come to live in our communities. What if we could help just one half of one percent of them change? That's about 2,000 individuals. I estimate that during my criminal career, I average about $200 per day in some sort of damages related to crime. Using that estimate alone, we can help almost a half million dollars in crime-related damages not happen. Now let's say that these 2,000 former criminals position themselves to earn an average of just $12,000 annually! That's $24 million in collective annual revenues. That's not all. Consider incarceration costs that don't have to be invested in those 2,000, now former criminals, rapidly becoming change activists. The potential return on investment boggles the mind.

So what's the investment? Click here and prepare to be shocked!

Let's do this! Remember, the first law of success is: get started!

See you at success!