“I'm privileged to have experienced incarceration.”
—Jason Lee Bayles #A302843
Jason Lee Bayles was incarcerated when he was 19, sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years. He was a troubled kid, like most of the men who serve long prison sentences, as serious crimes do not generally spring from happy, well-adjusted childhoods. So, Jason had a tough life and made a lot of terrible choices, and became addicted to a rough life and the many things that allowed him to escape his environment.
But today he has become a man with something to offer the world. He has regret, but his mistakes have informed him and challenged him to improve his mind and his outlook. He says, “I can use my past as a testament to show others that it’s never too late to turn bad consequences from behaviors around, creating examples of hope, growth, and inspiration.” So, how did this happen?
In prison, Jason was trained in “cognitive restructuring,” a method of challenging negative, unhelpful thoughts and replacing them with more accurate ones that affect our emotions, behaviors, and mental health. It starts with identifying the thoughts that make a person feel bad, mad, or upset, and then challenging those thoughts. Are the negative thoughts really fully accurate? Is there contradicting evidence for the negative thoughts? Then the person is asked to come up with statements that are more rational, realistic, and constructive. And, finally, we put the new thoughts to the test in real-life situations and keep reinforcing them to build healthier thinking patterns.
It may sound too easy, but this man and many, many others, have found happiness, peace, and mental health through the process. Jason is also known as “The Red Bearded Drifter.” It’s part of his persona, since he’s not able to be drifting much as he serves his prison sentence, but he has a blog post and a Facebook page now, and says this, “Does it seem silly I am grateful to be incarcerated? I don’t feel silly.” However, he does feel the redemption through the cognitive restructuring help he received. He describes it all in this Gandhi quote: “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.”
Says Jason, “I am not proud, at all, of who I was, but who I have become bears the potential to contribute to [the] world.” Until Jason is paroled, he continues learning, playing his guitar, and writing music. He ended his post with this: “Along my way, someone showed me their beauty and I was able to see my own. I am forever thankful for them.”
Redeemed,
Jim
