Changing lives: Theological education behind prison walls (Part 3).

In Changing Lives Part 1 of this three-part series, I provided background about an accessible, affordable seminary training program offered in jails and prisons across the U.S. called The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI). I also highlighted participants’ qualitative comments that fell into the “healthy thinking/intrapersonal intelligence” category. I pointed out that a person with a high degree of intrapersonal intelligence (self-awareness, emotional regulation, self-regard, and the ability to strive to achieve personal goals and actualize one’s potential) is less likely to recidivate.

In Changing Lives Part 2, I shared the changes participants had experienced related to interpersonal relationships. Participants described how they were more authentic in their relationships and felt a sense of responsibility to be better fathers, husbands, wives, partners, and community members than they were before experiencing TUMI. They reported greater social awareness, empathy, compassion, and healthy social interactions than ever before.

In this article, Part 3, I will describe how participants experienced changes in their coping strategies: how they cope with stress, manage impulses, problem solve, manage negative emotions, and self-regulate.

Impact Evaluation

I mentioned in previous articles that I have been engaged in a program evaluation project with TUMI’s prison-based theological training. I was granted the rare opportunity to go inside jails and prisons across the U.S. and meet face-to-face with incarcerated men and women, many who were serving life or multiple life sentences. 

I interviewed 74 currently incarcerated men and women and 40 formerly incarcerated program graduates. With the help of partners, we distributed quantitative and qualitative surveys to 157 currently and formerly incarcerated participants across the U.S. 

I asked participants to rate their experience with TUMI, to self-evaluate their well-being (shown to be a key contributor to success in re-entry), and to discuss how participation in TUMI has impacted them. In semi-structured group interviews, I asked participants to “Describe the kind of person you were before going to prison/jail and who you are now that you have been a part of the TUMI prison training,” among other questions.

Effective Coping Strategies

One theme that captured the experiences of currently and formerly incarcerated TUMI participants was effective coping strategies. Effective coping refers to one’s emotional management and self-regulation capabilities. It is those “adaptive behavioral and psychological efforts taken to manage and reduce internal/external stressors in ways that are not harmful in the short or long term” (Pettus-Davis et al., 2021, p. 438). (Stressors are those demands that cause mental tension).

People who employ effective coping strategies can effectively and constructively manage negative emotions, tolerate stress, and control impulses. They can objectively validate their feelings and thinking with external reality, adapt and adjust their feelings and thinking to new situations, and they can effectively solve problems of a personal and interpersonal nature. 

Effective coping also refers to a general mood of optimism and happiness. To be positive and look at the brighter side of life, and to feel content with oneself, others, and life in general is effective coping.

Pettus-Davis et al. (2021), in their Well-Being Development Model, asserted that, “developing and strengthening coping strategies allows individuals to respond to stress, disappointment, anger, and periods of crisis using positive social supports and other healthy coping skills rather than reacting to these situations using violence, drugs, alcohol, or other negative or avoidant coping strategies” (p. 441-442). Therapeutic communities that are designed to improve healthy coping tend to reduce criminogenic risk significantly and improve psychological well-being.

Moreover, effective coping strategies are a key ingredient in almost all evidence-driven treatments for problematic substance use and mental health disorders” (Pettus-Davis et al., 2021, p. 442). It is easy to see how healthy, problem-focus coping is positively associated with well-being and overall health in people from all walks of life, especially those who are impacted by the justice system.

When asked about the personal experiences with the prison based TUMI program, one participant summed up his experience this way:

It’s helping me think about life and people in general a lot more, helped me react to certain situations differently.

Participants frequently described increased in self-regulation, especially related to regulating drug and alcohol intake, as a result of participating in TUMI. One participant said:

Before TUMI, I was in active addiction, which led me to do bad things. I was angry and bitter, which led me to make more mistakes. I was on a one-way track to hell. Now, I can turn to Christ now for answers and solutions to life’s issues.

Another participant discussed how his drug and alcohol addiction continued in prison:

I had a very bad addiction with alcohol, even in prison. And I became what we call a hooch master – I would make my own liquor, and I drank a lot. I drank a whole lot. And the more I drank, the angrier I got because I was dealing with a whole lot of emotional problems. I almost killed myself with alcohol by making a bad batch. I ended up getting eight years in segregation. Some people told me about TUMI, asking if I was ‘ready to get real with it.’ I wanted what they had. I wanted to live a life without all this anger, frustration, agitation, aggravation, all that. TUMI was what changed all that.

Several participants reported the ability to better manage difficult emotions. One participant described his experience in response to questions about how TUMI has changed him by saying:

Before prison it was about self, running from death with emotions that I didn’t know how to balance. Anger was an emotion I felt comfortable with. Now anger is still a part of me but it fuels my search for understanding conflict. Now my focus is on establishing my foundation on Scripture, a proven method of wisdom, love, and success. 

Conclusions

In summary, positive changes can occur during periods of incarceration, as evidenced by the qualitative and quantitative evidence gathered throughout this research project. 

The men and women I interviewed and surveyed undoubtedly sought out ways to redeem themselves and to achieve growth with extraordinary agency and motivation in what many would consider extremely arduous circumstances.

Positive growth in prison seems unattainable to most, but the men and women who participated in TUMI succeeded in achieving positive transformation in the context of imprisonment.

What I’ve learned over the past year is that TUMI is providing so much more than a seminary education. It is creating healthy thinking patterns, it is bringing self-awareness and self-respect to its participants, it is creating positive interpersonal relationships inside and outside prison walls, and it is equipping participants with problem-solving skills, impulse control, the ability to manage negative emotions, and freedom from substance use disorders.

The men and women who participated in TUMI have undergone tremendous transformation. Being a part of TUMI, according to the 74 currently incarcerated men and women and 40 formerly incarcerated program graduates, and the 157 survey respondents who were a part of this year-long impact evaluation, results in significant cognitive, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and emotional shifts.

In the words of one participant, “It’s changed what I’m living for!”