I met a man, who had been sentenced to life in prison for aggravated murder. This man had given up on life, was basically curled up on his bunk and wasting away. This mans back story was that he was a combat veteran who, upon returning to civilian life, found he could not succeed in civilian life and turned to organizing and running a criminal enterprise. Part of his commitment to those he recruited was a promise to protect them and the operation without reservation. This eventually led to his assassinating an other identified threat, that was a set up by one of the crew (betrayal). The man who killed, was eventually identified by other members of his crew, tried, sentenced and imprisoned. While in prison, this man rose to a place of authority among other prisoners before crashing into deep depression at hearing he had heart failure and would die soon. To shorten this and get to my point: This man died at home among loved ones after earning parole. He was the first person in Oregon to be paroled from the type of sentence he was serving. My point is, this man earned parole by committing to a course of self-transformation (Transformative Justice), including intensive Mindfulness Training, Cognitive Behavioral Change, and mastering (Marshall Rosenbergs) Nonviolent Communication. Of these programs, although there is a growing evidence base to support the application of Mindfulness and CBT or MCBT and NVC to transforming criminogenic thinking and behavior, that evidence base is still very insubstantial. I wish there were a way to establish the needed evidence base for applying these experientially proven technologies, so that they be funded and proliferate to transform our current criminal justice system in Oregon. I have an idea about using the Buss-Perry Aggression scale psychology-tools/buss-perry-aggression-questionnaire to test the effectiveness of these programs. ION psychweb.uoregon.edu/graduates/intellectualcommunities/cognitiveneuroscience appears like an interesting place.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 15:54:54 +0000