…every inmate continues moving downstream—while incarcerated and, in most cases, after returning to society. No one knows what will happen downstream.
While in prison, inmates can understand their past. They can recognize destructive patterns. They can learn new ways of thinking. They can tell everyone that they have changed. None of that becomes lasting internal change until they begin living differently. Understanding their realities upstream is not transformation. Lasting internal change must eventually become experiential.
Whether still incarcerated or eventually released, an inmate must begin living differently. Making different choices. Building different relationships. Responding differently to conflict. Accepting responsibility. Experiencing themselves living differently.
For many inmates, that journey will still include time inside prison. If internal change occurs there, prison becomes the first place where that change can be lived. Every day in prison now provides opportunities. They can make a different choice. Handle conflict differently. Build healthier relationships. Become a different influence on the people around them. Could this influence contribute to a safer prison?
And for inmates who someday leave prison, the River continues flowing. Years spent experiencing and practicing internal change inside prison may travel downstream with an inmate into their family and community.
No one knows what will happen downstream. No one.