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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, November 29, 1967
Pre-release counseling helps inmates-
Continued from page 1
those who are already victims of these circumstances, those already in prison?
Along with community programs for prevention of crimes, a number of civic groups are helping the prisoner adjust to society through counseling, academic and vocational training, employment services and just plain old personal support.
These groups include Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, the Jaycees, Bad Check Associates, Synanon, Opportunities Inc., and groups directed especially to the convict and ex-convict such as the Seventh Step Foundation.
The Seventh Step Foundation was formed in 1962 by Bill Sands, a former inmate of San Quentin prison in California.
Realizing the conditions he had faced as an ex-con, Sands, with the permission of the director of Kansas State prisons, organized a pre-release class at the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing.
The purpose of the class was to condition the prisoner to society's expectations and to prepare him to face the problems he would soon encounter as an ex-con.
Planing the class as a "self-help" undertaking, Sands enlisted the aid of two long-term prisoners to coordinate the program inside the prison.
There are now several inmate-coordinators conducting meetings every Monday evening.
The meetings are open to the public and often there are almost as many "square-johns" (outsiders) as there are inmates.
Al Lesco, chairman of the coordinating committee, estimated almost 80 per cent of those
released after attending the classes do not return to prison.
During a two-year period 500 convicts graduated from the class. Of these only 50 returned to prison while another 50 were delinquent on parole.
From its beginning as a pre-release class, the foundation mushroomed in order to meet the needs of the prisoners. The group now maintains an outside counseling service for parolees, secures employment before or after release, secures sponsors who will assume responsibility for a parolee in lieu of a job and maintains an office where ex-cons can make contacts for jobs or counseling.
The latest innovation of the Seventh Step Foundation is a juvenile program in which youngsters in trouble are brought to the prison for Wednesday evening meetings.
The boys meet and converse privately with convicts, members of the coordinating committee. After a short period the meeting changes to an audience-participation lecture situation and visitors are admitted.
Another part of the juvenile program is outside lectures given by the convicts to schools and church groups. Whenever possible a member of the Seventh Step committee is allowed to give a lecture in a school or church.
A lecture of this type was given by convict Charlie Dyers at Washington High School in Kansas City. Kan.
James Beu, a KU graduate and English teacher at the school, said Dyers held the kids spellbound for 45 minutes.
"When I introduced Charlie to the assembly I told them he was not an ex-con but a convict," he said. "I told them he didn't get an
extra egg on his plate or a couple years off his time for this," Beu said.
"He had every reason to resent society for keeping him penned up but he volunteered to give the talk.
"He had the audience calling themselves stupid if, now knowing what Charlie knows about his own life, they entered a life of crime," Beu said.
"At one point he had some of the girls in tears and a few of the boys seemed to have lumps in their throats," he said.
"He asked the audience if they had been bothered recently by a dog barking at night or a baby crying next door. Then he told them he hadn't heard a dog in seven and a half years.
"The kids gave him two standing ovations," he said.
Dyers said later at the prison, "Sometimes you have to be cruel, almost viscious to make these kids understand."
He once dragged a tough kid over to a 19-year-old prisoner who showed him an 18-inch scar on his chest, inflicted when the young convict refused to be another man's woman in the prison.
Beu said the kid went back to school, on his own arranged consultations with all his teachers and asked them what they expected from him.
"Since then, though not an excellent student, he has shaped up considerably." he said.
Joe Wallace, an ex-convict who is now head of the Kansas City Seventh Step Club, gave up a full-time job to direct the organization.
He attends all the meetings at the prison, tries to find jobs and sponsors for parolees, and lectures when he gets a chance.
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