I was a professional criminal all my life: a drug dealer, an armed robber, rip-off artist, con artist, thief and liar.‍ And I was completely and totally sick to death of myself. My life was a lie, the world I lived in and created was false. The responsible and honest people of this world knew that and that was why I was in prison for the rest of my life. They wanted me out of society to protect society.

And they weren’t wrong.

In one moment the realization and magnitude of the harm and injury I had inflicted on countless innocent people – my children, their mothers, my sisters and brother, my parents, all my victims and myself came crashing into the very core of my being. Like I said, it made me physically ill, for days. Those thoughts of injury to so many people were the beginning of my desire to make right all the wrong I had done. From that point on I promised myself I would do everything I could to figure out what and how I could change. But it was also at that moment I realized I didn’t know how to change.

We need to stop finding fault in society or the government or the police. Find the fault in yourself and fix it. Be what you want others to be. Never look for respect from others but always be willing to give it. Like the title of the first course, The Way to Happiness, the entire Criminon program is an excellent guide to change, to think about the effects of the poor choices we’ve made and to gain new ideas and new concepts, and then start getting experience using those new ideas.

The men and women who start and stick with this program have come to that point in their lives where they realize something in them must change. They realize several other things too. But the bottom line is that nothing has worked so far, so it must be us.

“The Criminon program has given me the opportunity to effectively help others become what they’ve always wanted to be – a responsible, trustworthy, dependable part of their family, home, and community.”

The Criminon program has given me the opportunity to effectively help others become what they’ve always wanted to be – a responsible, trustworthy, dependable part of their family, home, and community.

I now have an unquenchable desire to help all prisoners be a success and to stay out of prison once they get out.

J.M.
Zephyrhills Prison, Florida, USA