Musings: And Justice For All – A Special Ministry in US Federal Prison

The LCP program is offered to inmates who are going to be released in the next 36 months. This helps them start a new chapter in their lives on the outside. Many have served over 25 years in this federal prison and rightly have concerns on how they will fare as a free citizen. At Petersburg my first of four presentations was to a new group that just started the program. Each new program runs at a 6-month interval. The Chaplain that runs the Leavenworth LCP says he likes me to speak in the front end of the program (which I did at Petersburg) because after they hear me speak they pay more attention to the follow-up curriculum. The LCP is a comprehensive 18-month program which is both impressive and extensive, showing amazing results.

I do three things in these opening presentations:

1. I share the impact of crime on victims in a vivid and a visceral way. The stories reveal the lasting impact and often bring even the most hardened of hearts to tears. Many do not fathom this impact, and after they hear me speak they understand how excruciatingly painful crime is and how it scars the soul forever. While this is painful for me to share, I feel it is important. I never comprehended the pain of violence until I experienced it through the loss of my son. Now that I GET how painful violence is, I would never be violent to another human being. I think it is important that the inmates also get this … as well as the prison staff and the LCP Spiritual Advisor.
2. I give them a four-point formula on how they can redeem themselves.

   Step 1 – Take Responsibility for your Actions
   Step 2 – Ask Forgiveness from the People You have Hurt
   Step 3 – Forgive Yourself
   Step 4 – Change the Behavior Forever and Stop at least One Other Person from Making the Same Mistake

   These steps teach them self-forgiveness, encourage them to redeem themselves by forever changing the behavior that resulted in their incarceration, and then invite them to go out and stop other youth from making similar mistakes. You may have heard the term “school to prison pipeline.” In the TKF programs, we use several ex-offenders as panelists and teachers to the youth. More often than not they are very effective in convincing challenged youth to NOT enter a life of crime and violence. With the grace of God our programs reduce suspensions by 70 percent, thus confirming these principles are not only teachable, but also our kids are hungry for this knowledge. These ex-offenders essentially are street-smart, applied experts. Often they are more effective than others that have not traveled the same journey. More importantly they need to heal their wounds for the offenses they perpetrated. Therefore by saving young people from becoming criminals it helps them forgive themselves and give back to society. They become a resource to society rather than a drain.

3. Lastly I teach the inmates to meditate. I lead them into a 30-minute guided meditation, which is very effective. In Milan, the Chaplain was very surprised as the inmates stayed engaged with me for the full 30 minutes, which is 25 minutes longer than they normally can remain engaged. Through meditation these people are able to set the intention of changing their behavior (which is very hard to do – even for us not in prison) and seek self-forgiveness by helping youth.

All in all this is intense and emotional work, and I am very spent. I often shed many tears on my way to the airport but they are tears of happiness, as this work – you will agree – is important to do.

The second presentation in Petersburg was a Commencement Speech to 36 LCP graduates that I had already spoken to twice in my prior visits, a number of cohorts still in the program, and their spiritual advisors. In the faith-based LCP program every inmate is supported by a spiritual advisor consistent with their faith. So the Muslims are supported by an Imam, the Christians by a Reverend, the Jewish by a Rabbi, the Buddhist by a Monk and the non-denominationalists and atheists by an ecumenical teacher. Here I taught the six principles of nonviolence we can all practice.(Details at www.tkf.org.)

My third presentation was a workshop with all the spiritual advisors covering:

1. The three steps of forgiving people who have harmed us
2. The four steps on how to forgive ourselves for the harm we have caused

The truth is that at some level we have all caused harm to others as well. This was an instructive workshop designed solely for the advisors so they could continually support the inmates over the course of the LCP program on the principles I have shared.

It was a long and intense day. The next morning I did a 2.5 hour presentation to all the new and some of the other cohorts I had met on my prior visit. The topic was the points made in my third book The Secrets of the Bulletproof Spirit: How to Bounce Back from Life’s Hardest Hits co-authored with Jillian Quinn. With a total of 30 chapters in the book, I selected 10 specific chapters that are loaded with wisdom for the inmates so they could equip themselves with powerful tools to help them start a new life. The spiritual advisors and some of the staff were also present at this talk. After that I drove to Richmond for my flight to Atlanta where I had another presentation on Saturday.

As I earlier noted, the recidivism rate (repeat offenses) for LCP graduates is under 11 percent. That means that 89 percent of the program graduates change their behavior, which is a very hard thing to do for us too. If they can do it, then so can we! We can thus all become better people, and in so doing create a better world.