The Criminon™ Program
The Criminon program consists of the basic course, The Way to Happiness, which is a course that uses the booklet, The Way to Happiness, a non-religious moral code written by author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard, and results in a person regaining his self-respect.
Following this basic course, students have a choice of additional courses, also based on the works of Mr. Hubbard, dealing with important life skills.
These Criminon courses are delivered in 3 ways:
By Correspondence
Students do these courses and trained Criminon volunteers supervise each lesson of each course on a weekly basis by mail.
Criminon of Maine has been doing this for over 5 years . There are 21 supervisors delivering to students in 28 prisons across 6 states.
Community Education Centers
Trained Criminon volunteers deliver the courses to people from community-based programs, probation and parole departments, court referrals, schools and community organizations.
Four students who were recently validated for their participation in the Criminon program as Teaching Assistants are interested in creating and staffing a halfway house that will hold a detoxification center, a courseroom for parolees and their families.
On-site
Students do courses while being directly supervised by trained Criminon volunteers.
In October 2002 the only on-site Criminon program in the United States began in the Adult Correctional Institution in Rhode Island.
The Way to Happiness Course
This course replaces the "criminal code of conduct" by teaching common sense values that anyone can use to live a stable and productive life and, most importantly, to regain and maintain self-respect.
This course consists of a text covering The Way to Happiness, A Common Sense Guide to Better Living, and 21 lessons administered by mail that walk the student through the guide -- not just understanding it but actually practicing it in his or her own life to often life-changing results.
Learning Improvement Course
Upon completion of The Way to Happiness Course the students continue on to the Learning Improvement Course.
The correlation between illiteracy and criminal behavior has been well documented. The Criminon program strives to handle the potential effects of illiteracy by handling the illiteracy itself. If a student doesn't know HOW to study then study isn't an option.
Parenting Skills Course
Being a good parent is not necessarily a skill people are born with. Learning how to parent your children is often a skill passed on from generation to generation. Unfortunately, bad parenting "skills" are also passed on in this manner.
Handling Suppression Course
Have you ever felt like something was holding you back in life or stopping you from reaching your goals? Have you ever been around a person who was doing well one day and the next day doing horribly; doing well, then doing poorly? Do you know anyone who always seems to be sick? There is a reason these things occur.
The Personal Integrity Course
Integrity: Moral soundness; honesty; freedom from corrupting influence or motive.
Personal integrity is the basis upon which sound decisions are made in life.
The materials covered in this course give the basic principles and information that the student can use to help him/herself or another regain personal integrity and bring about an improvement in interpersonal relationships.
Overcoming the Effects of Drugs Course
At this point in time over half of the crimes committed in the United States are related to drugs or are done while under the influence of drugs. It stands to reason that handling drugs would be a basic building block to the rehabilitation of a criminal.
This course gives students the basics of what drugs really are and how they effect the body and mind.
Improving Conditions In Life Course
At any given point in life you are in a specific state or condition. Oftentimes when someone has reached the point of criminal or unethical behavior, they have lost the ability (or never had the ability) to recognize their current condition in life. If you can't see what condition you are in you can't really improve it. And if you can see the condition you are in but you don't know the steps to take to handle it, again, you're stuck.
The Communication Course
Think back to the last time someone didn't listen to what you were trying to tell them... or the last time you couldn't get your communication across to another. It is likely that you and/or the other person become upset because of this. Being unable to communicate well can lead to unethical choices and non-optimum circumstances in life.