The Five Stages of Incarceration: A Personal Story
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Training Description
At 19, Lester Young was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole until 20 years had been served. During his time in prison, Lester struggled to find redemption and purpose. During this MHS Public Safety Webinar, “Five Stages of Incarceration,” Lester will identify the stages of his journey in prison and how he moved past each stage that effectively prevented his growth.
Often, incarcerated individuals spend their time engaging in the same things that lead to incarceration. Lester instead utilized his time to start understanding and addressing the core issues that shaped his mindset and behavior that led to his imprisonment. This webinar will allow participants to better understand the challenges individuals within the prison environment endure relating to self-reflection, accountability, growth, and preparing to return to their family life, community, and new perspective of becoming a model citizen. This webinar will also explore personal addictions, guilt, shame, childhood traumas, and other various factors that play a role in one’s decision-making and thought process that may lead to a criminal mindset and behavior choices leading to incarceration.
Lester Young will also touch on recriminalization and decriminalization and how each level of incarceration emotionally impacts transformation back into society. He will share the importance of identifying, addressing, healing from and moving forward from triggers that could enable formerly incarcerated individuals to re-offend.
Trainer Biography
Lester Young Jr. is a native of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. At 19, he was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole until 20 years had been served. During his time in prison, Lester struggled to find redemption and often wondered what his purpose was. While journaling, he asked himself, “What is the footprint you want to leave in this world?” It was then that he realized his purpose was to be “that” voice to help youth at risk. With the warden’s approval, Lester and the prison chaplain began meeting to create outlines, programs, and classes to instruct and mentor fellow incarcerated individuals. This is where the idea of Lester establishing his non-profit organization “Path2Redemption” began. Lester was released on parole on May 15, 2014 (22 years and five months later). Even after his release, the outlines of his programs are still taught in prison. Lester received a pardon from South Carolina Probation and Parole Board in 2020.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this webinar, you will be able to…
- Identify the challenges individuals incarcerated face daily as it relates to change.
- Identify underlying issues that may shape a person’s behavioral choices that may lead to incarceration.
- Discuss the steps toward redemption during and after incarceration.
