SEVEN LAWS OF SUCCESSFUL CORRECTION AND REHABILITATION

FOREWORD It was about 35 years ago, yet still I do remember it as if it was but yesterday. The chaplain of the Los Angeles County Jail had extended an invitation to our church pastor and two of his assistants – yours truly included – to visit the downtown L.A. facility. It was a hot summer day but fairly cool inside the jail facility. We were welcomed warmly by the County Jail’s chaplain, whose name I cannot remember, but this haunting scene I do vividly remember: the iron cage! The cage was about eight square foot long and was located not far from the entrance to the highly populated large prison. On one side, to my right, a fairly peaceful scene could be observed of prisoners going about their business, either to the showers, cells or the kitchen facility. On the left side there was the cage; it didn’t look peaceful. I was mesmerized by the presence of this cage, and more so by the one occupying it. He seemed to be like a young man in his late twenties. His face was unshaven and his hair unkempt. He was leaning on the heavy bars with both his hands extended outside of his small cage and staring straight at me. I was only few feet away from him, yet a world apart. His eyes were full of deeply profound hatred and fury at those outside his cage, and who could forget those blazing eyes! Whatever the nature of his crime, no matter how faulty his upbringing may have been in his youth, he was still a human being! He must have been a very dangerous and violent criminal to be placed, like a caged animal, in that lonely cell. Still, he was, first and foremost, a human being! I had a little struggle going on in my mind at that point, when our eyes crossed and lingered momentarily on the facial expression of each other. I wanted, on one hand, to walk over to him, touch his hand and assure him that despite his actions I still regard him as a human being, not an animal. On the other hand, I was bound by the prison rules not to mingle too closely with the Jail inmates. You see, at this point we call them “inmates” not human beings or a fellow brother, sister, father, friend or a relative. Though they were derailed by their own actions, still, they are human beings in need of proper and successful human correction, rehabilitation, and complete reconciliation. There is no justified time when the dignity of a human being should be trampled under! There is a “high road” we can travel. This road is the better “Way” and “The Royal Law” that shows us the path, from the beginning, of a caring human process to resolve a conflict to its successful completion that would lead to a total reconciliation. But alas, the spirit of vindictiveness, deeply ingrained in many of us, from our youth, does not allow us to see and employ the better “Way.” But, O, how do we seek the better “Way” when our own human dignity is trampled under and cast down to the ground!