Sometimes dealing with men who've been recently released from prison can be difficult. After a man has spent five or 10 years incarcerated he sometimes has difficulty adjusting to the real world. Part of the culture of being in prison is the concept of respect.

In prison if someone disrespects another prisoner there can be problems. If a convict disrespects the wrong person he can be killed. While respect may be a cultural concept that works in prison it often doesn't serve prisoners once they are released. Often parolees in our program adhere to the same cultural concepts as they did in prison and get into trouble. In the real world we can't react to small perceived slight.

This came to my attention recently when I was dealing with a fellow who'd been released on parole after spending nine years behind bars. He seemed willing to adhere to the guidelines of our program. Because he had lived in prison for so long that idea of following the rules and guidelines of TLC weren't too daunting for him. However, he ran into a few problems when he thought someone had disrespected him. The concept of respect eclipsed the issue that was being dealt with. He felt the manager hadn't shown him proper respect when he was disciplining him for an infraction that occurred while the parolee was on a new job.

So now we have two problems to deal with: the first is the issue that arose on the job; the second is about feeling disrespected. In any case, it'll all work out. I just hope it doesn't work out with this man being so offended that he leaves the program or forgets that his mission when he came to TLC was to rebuild his life.