I recently committed to write about and broadcast conversations dealing with issues of rehabilitation, recovery, and reintegration. I want to highlight a direct, honest, practical approach to cognitive and behavioral change – brought to life by my own lived experiences and those of others I know who are confronting their issues.
My motivation stems from the work I’ve been doing with the Citizens’ Advisory Council. While presenting at secure facilities, we try to draw people into participating. Those conversational parts of our sessions feel most meaningful and impactful.
They remind me of the conversations I had with my closest friends throughout my years in prison. I miss that. And I know that kind of interaction – processing through our shit together – was instrumental for me in growing up. I want to capture that and reproduce it. I want to write about it. And I want to record some of it in action and broadcast it.
I hope that work can find an audience out in the world. It could be a powerful vehicle to encourage recovery for those incarcerated, should administrators allow that content to be made available inside facilities.
The Echo Chamber
People are isolated inside prisons. They have limited access to media, mostly television and books. Their ability to interact with other people is tightly controlled and follows just a few patterns:
- institutional staff trying to manage them
- treatment staff and volunteer groups trying to reach them
- approved visitors maintaining relationships with them
- other people on the yard telling and showing them how to be
So many people in prison pass around the same old stories. Some try to enforce certain codes of conduct. Others complain about how unfair the system is, spreading tales of mistreatment by the courts, their previous parole officer, their family or even their victims.
I get how those things can feel so engrossing. But how much effort are they worth? I’d rather focus on health, sanity, and growth. Put effort where you can make an impact. The things you repeat – in your head, or to those around you – do have an effect on both you and them.
A Different Point of View
It is vital to get different stories inside the facilities. People need to hear that others have made it so they can believe its possible for them too. People need to hear that the problems they face are not insurmountable. People need to hear they are not forgotten, they matter.
Some will waste away without those stories – giving up on themself and their health, becoming feeble in a hard environment. Others will viciously punish themself and find creative ways to lessen or end their own suffering. Yet others will blind themself to their own potential and commit to destructive patterns of behavior that will bind them to the system.
The only way out is change. People can change – it is much more unusual not to change. Our default modality is to adapt. We adapt to our environment. We adapt to those we care about, who we surround ourselves with.
The story we tell ourselves determines how we interpret our environment. The stories we listen to shapes the story we tell ourselves. That is the power of conversation and inside it needs a change.
re³ building 