THE WAY TO HAPPINESS TO REHABILITATE INMATES’ SELF-RESPECT
The American Jail Association (AJA) is a national, nonprofit organization supporting the professionals who operate jails in the United States. It is the only organization dedicated to the unique problems that local correctional facilities must solve.
L. Ron Hubbard, author of The Way to Happiness (TWTH), discovered that “a criminal career always begins at the moment when the criminal-to-be loses his self-respect.” He wrote, “The reformation or reclamation of the criminal does not depend upon punishment … but upon the re-establishment of the criminal’s self-respect.”
This is where The Way to Happiness and the AJA intersect. This booklet, with its 21 precepts, comprises the proven solution to rehabilitating the criminal. The 21 precepts have proven an effective tool in giving inmates guidance to lead ethical and thus happy, fulfilling lives. The inmate not only gets out of jail, but having restored his self-respect, rejoins society as a productive citizen. Therefore The Way to Happiness Foundation tailored the Restoring Self-Respect Kit for jails and prisons across the globe to use in implementing the program.
The Way to Happiness booth was set up at the American Jail Association Conference held in Sacramento, California. Here materials were offered at no charge to correctional officers, sheriff’s department personnel and department of corrections administration staff. Every person who visited the booth during the conference left planning to implement the program both with their own staff and with their inmates. These included a sheriff who intends to launch the program for all inmates in the county jail, and the training director for an entire state’s department of correction requesting it for all prisons and for two Native American tribal correction center officials. One Minnesota correctional official said of The Way to Happiness: “It gets the inmates thinking with new ideas, challenges their faulty thinking and triggers a change. They are now caring and understanding that we are all interconnected and that their actions affect us all.”
A group supervisor of a juvenile hall said, “One of the extraordinary results of this program has been several minors admitting to me that they now feel remorse for what they have done in the past. This type of statement is highly unusual among criminals.… We do not have disciplinary problems with them.”
TAKING ACTION
Teaching Happiness? Tell Us About It
Do stories of populations uplifted by the simple power of The Way to Happiness inspire you? Have you ever wondered if your own story could be told?
The Way to Happiness Foundation is a global network of business owners, human resource directors, law enforcement personnel, educators, youth mentors, parents, youth and volunteers—all connected by the common purpose to restore decency, honor and dignity to the world. As you are reading this, you are already part of the team.
If you have used The Way to Happiness to improve conditions and want to share your challenges and successes with others, we’d like to hear from you. Your story could be featured in a future newsletter.
Please send your story and photos. To see one such story visit scientology.tv/reverend-leon-kelly.
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RESTORE MORAL VALUES
The Way to Happiness Foundation International works to reverse the moral decay of society by restoring trust and honesty through widespread distribution of the 21 precepts. Donations support production and distribution of The Way to Happiness booklet and curriculum material.