Last evening I attended the graduation of 55 prison inmates. They were convicted of state crimes in Nevada, not federal crimes. They went through an intensive program to get to this point. They had their celebration last night as they are at the end of it.
I didn’t know what to expect when I went. One funny thing was that Billy Walters sponsors this. I knew him way back when. I was on the board of our country club in Illinois and Walters purchased the course. What was really interesting is he did every single thing he said he was going to do. He was an interesting cat. Big gambler here in Las Vegas and then got tied up in an inside trading thing. He apparently had a gambling loss and had to sell the club to a national golf company and that’s when I left the club.
Jon Ponder runs the program. He has his own individual story which is crushing, but hopeful to read. From all accounts, he is an amazing networker and has built a great community dedicated to the mission of working with these people.
There was a lot to digest last night. But, the core of this program is not hope, but faith. There is a difference. Maybe the fundamental difference is why the “hope and change” agenda didn’t stick, nor did it do anything for anyone except the person selling it.
Hope is needed, but it’s not quantifiable. Hope isn’t actionable. It’s out there in the ether. However, you can’t move forward unless you have some hope. Hope is just potential and we know how valuable potential is.
Faith is a belief. It’s something to guide you. It grounds you. Faith in God is very crucial to this program. Many pastors help out as mentors in the program. Faith in yourself and accepting the responsibility of having faith in yourself is essential.
Does it work?
Most of these kinds of programs have a very high rate of recidivism—as much as 60%. The program I watched graduate last night has a recidivism rate of 6%. Mind-blowing.
Critics of the program will say that it’s faith-based, and that’s a bad thing. But, is it? Maybe we need a lot more faith and religion in our communities in this country. Things like strong nuclear families work better than reliance on a government program.
Critics will also say that the prisoners self-select into the program. This is true. But, anyone who has dealt with a major problem like crime, or an addiction, knows that the person you are trying to help cannot be helped until they are willing to take the first step themselves. Self-selecting into this demanding program reveals to not only the person but to everyone else that they are ready.
Things like this are hard to scale because of the people involved. It’s not software that you plug and play. But, you can replicate it with the right people. It’s not a huge government program that costs billions of dollars. It’s small, and there is a lot of private funding for it. Sometimes doing the little things make a big difference. Hundreds of people have gone through this and are leading productive lives in society.
Last night, family members of the people graduating were in the crowd. You could see they were excited. There was electricity in the air. Mentors from the program were there too. It’s not an easy program and the people that went through it earned the right to be there. The family members had hope. The graduates had faith.
Great article and very encouraging!
Excellent read. Thanks for sharing this.
I'm a firm believer that Expectant Faith makes all the difference.