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Photo by Bob Pennell Sean Underwood, left, and Mike Gorton, a counselor for the drug-treatment agency OnTrack, celebrate Underwood's graduation from the Cognitive Restructuring program at the Jackson-Josephine County Work Center. Taking back their lives Inmate graduates say program helps them think things through By JULIE SWENSEN At this graduation ceremony, there are no caps and gowns. The graduates don't throw their hats into the air and walk free into the unknown world. These graduates aren't free -- they've already been out in the world, taken the wrong paths and landed in the Jackson-Josephine County Work Center in Talent, an 85-bed facility where they're serving time for crimes ranging from robbery to drug possession. The "Cognitive Restructuring" program they've just finished, they say, has changed the way they think, so they won't fall into old habits when they get out. Standing before an audience of about two dozen, including probation officers and a judge, the seven men in their jail garb and slippers accept certificates of graduation to applause. They talk of being changed men. "Now, for the first time in my life in a long, long time, I hope and believe in myself," says Sean Underwood, 30, of Medford. The Cognitive Restructuring class is one of many offered at the Work Center through the Jackson County Department of Health and Human Services. Other classes deal with problems such as anger or alcohol and drug abuse. Cognitive Restructuring teaches inmates to stop and think before they act. Posted on the wall are "thoughtstoppers," such as "remind yourself of the person you want to become" and "identify a negative consequence in the past and use it as an intervention for stopping the pattern." One man's thoughtstopper is his wife and children, another's his future and education. Some of the students go through the program because they're tired of going to jail or they're tired of doing drugs, says Nita Simmons-Barnes, a substance-abuse treatment coordinator for the county's Community Corrections Department. Others just want to get out of their "pod" in the work center, or they've been sent there by a probation officer or a judge. Barbara Northrop, who teaches the inmates, says some come in saying, "It's just one more trip to jail." But then they begin to say, "Maybe I do have a chance." They learn that change is possible, and that they're worthy of it. They learn to forgive themselves. Some sessions can be highly emotional. "It's not that they didn't want to change," Northrop says. "It's that they didn't know how." While she knows the program doesn't work for everyone, it succeeds with a large percentage. Of 240 people who have gone through the program, only five have returned to the facility, Simmons-Barnes says. Jackson County Judge Pat Crain, who arraigns 60 people every day, says she came to the graduation ceremony for a "breath of fresh air." She says the program "is one of the most successful I've ever seen." During the ceremony, the graduates give speeches. They talk of how their hate for the police has dissolved, how they can now use role-playing techniques to avoid trouble. How short-term gratification can lead to long-term destruction. One of the speakers is John E. Hoskins, a 26-year-old who's been in the Work Center since March and won't be released until January 2000. A self-described "liar and thief for many years," Hoskins says he ended up in jail because he threw a rock through a convenience store window in Grants Pass and stole 62 cartons of cigarettes. He says he would uproot coffee tables and break televisions when he got mad. As he gives his speech, Hoskins breaks down as he says he's learned the tools to change his life completely, and not just get out of the system, but stay out. "It's time for me to grow up. It's time for me to take my life back," he says. He adds that when he walks out of the center, he knows he's not fixed. "I know I need to work on it every day," he says. Graduating from the program is a big day for the graduates. "For some of them, it's the only time they've ever completed anything," Northrop says. Over refreshments after the ceremony, the men talk about their futures. Hoskins knows he faces challenges. Marijuana was his drug of choice, and his longtime girlfriend uses the drug medicinally to relieve the symptoms of fibromyalgia. But he realizes that his past behavior wasn't meeting his long-term needs. He's going to work as a chimney sweep. Underwood, who has been arrested for possession of drugs five times, said he's learned how his thinking patterns got him into trouble again and again. He talks of his arrest as his rescue, and plans to go into a halfway house and earn an associate degree in mechanics. While he says he's changed a lot, he's apprehensive about leaving the safe environment. "I'm really scared to walk out these doors," he said. Where will they be months from now? James Patrick, 36, graduated from the program 45 days ago. Patrick, who got into trouble for driving drunk and using drugs, wasn't interested in drug programs before because they just told him not to do drugs. But Cognitive Restructuring, he says, is a thinking program that taught him to take a look at what he was doing, and how it would affect him in the future. "Most of my life I've been on autopilot," says Patrick, and the program woke him up. Patrick says people tell him he's a lot nicer now. Now living in transitional housing, Patrick got his old job back at a concrete business and plans to get into a rental home next week. Other housemates who are fellow graduates are also doing well. Without the program, he says, he would have left jail and done the same things he'd been doing before. "It helped me a lot," he said. "I use it almost every day." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA