A Living Magazine - Day 93 - Who is Kevin?

I felt pretty well rested when I awoke. The air was much warmer than it had been for the last few days. I have issues with my eyes on cold mornings. They tend to tear-up from the air, and maybe a PH imbalance, or something. Anyway, it didn't happen on this morning.

I packed up and before leaving, checked out a path very near my sleeping spot to see where it led. I began walking down it and then looked to my right and saw someone's former spot...

It surprised me just how close it was to my own sleeping place. It hadn't been vacant for very long. The creek was full of surprises. It was much more frequently used then I had presumed. I climbed back up onto the field and began my regular morning walk down the path. 

When I got to the big bridge column (the one closest to my nest), I found papers strewn all over the place. It looked at first as if a kid had dropped his school papers from the bridge far above. But, then I realized that they had been thrown around intentionally--sometime over night. It was hard not to conjure the image of someone who was pissed off at life, came down from the roadway, parking lot, road or up the field path, and just threw his stuff "out". I have to say though, that it did seem like a bit a of a stupid move. I guessed it an impulse?

I slowed and began to look more carefully at the papers. I'm feeling like a voyeur lately, taking pictures of people's camp spots and hanging under garments. But these papers obviously stopped meaning something to the person who threw them out--unless they were stolen or something and then discarded--which I doubted.

The first thing to catch my eye was this workbook... 

I started to get the idea. Some 48 year old guy named Kevin [whose full name was all over the place, and I have purposely distorted the last name and other specifically identifying information on the document images, for publication on this blog] had been through cognitive behavioral therapy while in jail; either voluntarily or involuntarily.

I found certificates of completion, release letters, evaluations...a lot of VERY personal stuff. Even at the time of writing this, I do not yet know the story of why this stuff was thrown out.

I didn't read anything else, I just went around collecting the dozens of pages I found, plus brochures, credit and personal financial lessons and community resource information. I didn't want anyone to see me doing this, unless it happened to be Kevin himself.

When I got into town, I immediately went to Starbucks and poured over the papers, organizing them, and putting together a mental picture of this man, his life, and where he might be now.

Reading through his A Moral Reconation Therapy Workbook, I was moved by all the work he did, his rough handwriting and misspelling, and what seemed to be his playing along with system. That "playing" is an assumption on my part. But if he was playing, he did it very well, and completed the course.

Here is the organization which publishes this workbook and offers the Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) course, with a little bit of an introduction from their website...

CCI - Correctional Counseling Incorporated

Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) is the premiere cognitive-behavioral program for substance abuse treatment and for criminal justice offenders. Developed in 1985 by Gregory Little, Ed.D., and Kenneth Robinson, Ed.D., more than 120 published reports have documented that MRT-treated offenders show significantly lower recidivism for periods as long as 20 years after treatment. Studies show MRT-treated offenders have rearrest and reincarcertion rates 25% to 75% lower than expected.

MRT programs are used in 49 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and four countries. A 1999 report by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy estimated that the combined cost benefit to taxpayers and crime victims for the MRT program results in an $11.48 cost benefit for every dollar spent.

Correctional Counseling, Inc., has developed MRT-based programming for individuals with chronic substance abuse problems, anger management and domestic violence issues, and much more.

So this appears to be the state of the art counseling for current prisoners and people who need "substance abuse treatment". Here are some images showing just how intense this program was. An awful lot can be gleaned by simply reading. I read the entire book...

Apparently, it was a three month program. Interestingly, it started around the same time I left Livermore California, for this journey, and ended eight days ago--being the deciding factor for Kevin's release on September 19th.

These programs can be very effective. I am naturally skeptical of what happens when a bunch of psychologists sit around a room, examining "evidence based studies" so that they can attempt to write a book that is then supposed to cover anyone who has addiction and criminal issues.

What I wanted to see is how they steer the mind of the student. Without trying to be derogatory about these kinds of programs (because they DO really help people who have had behavioral deficits all their lives), I do want to say that they are meant to be a form of brainwashing. The student is a captive audience (in this case, literally), and HAS to complete the course successfully in order to be released.

So what it the crux of the course? Mostly it seems to be about building a philosophy within the student which can then rise above the temptations to do anti social things. It first goes after what current psychologists think is the negative early childhood training that I spoke about in yesterday's essay (please see: "A Living Magazine - Day 92 - The With and Without Barrier"). Then it seeks to remove the selfishness that comes with criminality, then does a rather good job of delicately and diplomatically dealing with substance abuse--even updated in 2006 (previous editions were: 1986, 1993 and 1996) to deal with the effort to legalize marijuana in some states. The softer take on marijuana, before any state had yet legalized it for recreational use, was a very progressive step, a risk that probably has paid off for the correctional system.

Now, let's take a walk through Kevin's experience, what he wrote (which is even more interesting in light of the fact that it was all thrown out the day after he was released), how he wrote and what he showed the course officials--compared to his real intentions for taking the course. I've also included Kevin's pencil drawings which are so precise and well-done, that I had to take a second look at them to make sure they were not prints.

If he did indeed throw out all of this stuff along the banks of Latah Creek, it MAY make moot his entire participation and may also call into question the usefulness of this methodology for "changing people" into non-repeat offenders? You decide...

They do not ASK what happened to you. They TELL you what happened to you as a child.

There is nothing mentioning to the student that these are theories.

The student is allowed to believe that this teaching IS the rock-solid truth.

Look at these stick-figure drawings. There is nothing wrong with them,

except that they are WAY below Kevin's artistic level, as you'll soon see...

Spelling and grammar are obvious issues. But, he does seem to write the way he speaks.

There is something almost grade-schoolish about all of this. It is a course made for a wide range of intelligence levels. It would seem quite childish to a well-educated person...

This was supposed to be Kevin's ideally important categories.

These sound altruistic, but we will see what he really wants.

Close up for what he would tell his mother, were she still alive. And then his brother...

I'm not sure if this was Kevin's plan, but the director let him use deceased family members as people he should make things well with. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Kevin got out of committing himself to people who are still alive--with the exception of his son, Kevin, Jr., who he seems to have genuinely loved, wanted to see again and be a good father to.

Part of the process of becoming more trustworthy and less self-involved (by that, I mean living only for one's self) involved keeping several logs, of which the following is one, proving that he was willing to help other people. Earlier in the book, it said that he (and people who commit crimes) are willing to act like a friend, but then lie to anyone in order to get what they want. This course was supposed to help stamp that out...

I mentioned above about how Kevin's important life categories seemed altruistic. But, when it really boils down, he has been trained by popular culture to want the shiny things...

These were supposed to be the things "that you most

value in life and the things that you believe would make you happy".

Two of the final pages.

He was really singing to the course director's choir in the words above. He may have been completely sincere. But, one of the last images in the book may also have reminded him of what he really wanted to hear...

Here are some of Kevin's original drawings. They are FANTASTICALLY well-done. Obviously, his nickname is "K-Dawg". The way he represents metallic reflections (for example) is simply unmatched for an amateur... 

I found the following folded into thirds and in the envelope (that you can see he bought at the jail from the receipt for pencil, paper and envelope, below). The woman mentioned is his current girlfriend, Leona...

 Outside.

(The shading is SO delicate.)

Inside.

And this is a quote by Marilyn Monroe drawn out as if written on parchment, but it is a photocopy. I'd love to see the original. Check out the scrolls!

Receipt.

Certificates...

His community resources material...

That was it for the day. I posted the blog entry about the day before--which was already nearly complete, since I'd written most of it offline the night before.

I returned to the creek and settled in for another night's sleep, knowing that at least I had an interesting personal profile to post the next day.