November 2005 | Evergreen Citizen
Returns Addressed
By Bob Condor
The world can change in an hour, if you examine Rusty Thomas’ story. As a young 20-something prisoner, he watched an Oprah Winfrey show about the effects of violent crimes on victims and their families. Pretty relevant stuff to Thomas, convicted of armed robbery, manslaughter and rape.
“Before that show, people would ask me if I had remorse,” says Thomas, who is this month’s Evergreen Citizen. “I would say yeah, yeah. But the fact is, I was more angry that I got caught.”
Thomas says he cried during the Oprah show. That “very day” he approached another prisoner who “walked differently from the rest of us, a spiritual guy but not a Bible slammer.”
“As I walked up to him,” recalls Thomas, “he said, ‘Oh, you’re ready to do something.’”
Thomas underwent drug and alcohol treatment and joined a workshop that examined thinking errors among criminals. He took anger management seminars and began practicing meditation. One workshop group required a one-year commitment to join; Thomas stayed on for four years.
Thomas entered prison when he was 22. He got out at 41. November marks his fourth year as an ex-convict or “returnee.”
It’s possible Thomas might quietly celebrate the four years, but, truth is, he has marked the occasion every day since his last stop in a minimum security unit at the Monroe Correctional Complex. That’s because Thomas earned a degree from Antioch University and is a coordinator with the Freedom Project, which facilitates workshops on meditation and nonviolent communication in three Washington prisons and works to support returnees. The project has been a bonafide success inside prison walls. Now Thomas is intent on helping expand and fulfill the Freedom Project mission by increasing transition programs for returnees.
Among other duties, Thomas coordinates the Freedom projects community circles, held every other Monday night in a Central District church. Both returnees and “NEBIs” (never been incarcerated) participate. It is virtually impossible to determine who’s who until people share their personal stories.
The Freedom Project held its third annual fundraiser in October to boost its nonprofit reserves since “seed money is running out.” One goal is for Thomas and other coordinators to launch a Safe Returns program that would offer daily meetings for returnees. What Thomas has learned the hard way is returnees need support to avoid more prison time.
This program will recruit community volunteers to act as “spokes” in a support group that puts the returnee at the hub. Thomas emphasizes that the support circles will build trust and safety for everyone.
“I like to say I am reminding them of their true beings,” says Thomas. “There is one tribe in Africa that, when someone steps out of line, they hold a circle to remind [the offender] of all the good things he did since he was born. That is reminding him of his true being.”
To donate money to the Freedom Project or volunteer for the Safe Returns program, check out www.freedom-project.org.
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