Restoring the Individual's Self-Respect
Restoring the Individual's Self-Respect

The crown jewel in the Criminon® array, The Way to Happiness course is perhaps the greatest tool in reforming criminals and in preventing criminal activity from beginning in the first place.

The course centers on the booklet The Way to Happiness®, a non-religious, common-sense moral code consisting of 21 precepts. Each precept deals with a specific area or activity of life, and explains why following such a code of conduct will actually lead to a better life.
Inmates from the Moscow Criminon® program with their copies of The Way to Happiness. Translations of this booklet are available in 23 languages
It is in fact this understanding which helps the individual realize why ethical behavior is the way to lead a happier and more productive life. And when they understand this, they change their behavior themselves
Each precept on the course is studied to a full understanding, and is followed by lessons and practical exercises and assignments which actively demonstrate how these are used and apply in life. Students on the course also put the precepts to use in their own lives as a major final practical assignment, and actually get to see their workability for themselves.
In effect, this course displaces the "criminal code of conduct" by teaching a common-sense moral code that anyone can use to live a life of stability and productivity, where they can be safe and happy, and most importantly get back and maintain their self-respect.
Students at a Criminon® Community Education Center discuss how to apply a precept from The Way to Happiness
Learning Improvement Courses

Teaching Literacy and Learning Skills
The correlation between criminal behavior and illiteracy is well documented. Failures in school and education can directly translate into crime and violence on the street.

The Criminon® Program handles this deficiency head-on with The Learning How to Learn and The Learning Improvement courses, which teach the student how to study, how to overcome the barriers to comprehension, and how to retain knowledge. It enables one to study any subject and learn the material effectively, so that he may then apply it immediately in life, with success
A Criminon instructor works with a student at the Criminon® Community Education Center in West Covina, California.
Ultimately, why does one study? So he can use what he has learned. But not knowing how to study and effectively learn a subject or craft can bar the road to real life application and success, not to mention something as basic as getting and holding a job.
On this course, students are taught the barriers to learning and how to recognize and overcome them. They are also taught how to look up and define words so that they are understood, whether in books or conversation. And most importantly, they are taught how to apply what is being learned so that it can be used. In effect, students on this course learn how to learn.

Successes from this course consistently acknowledge the fact that it is a vital skill for future training, not just in the Criminon Program, but in life. Students often feel for the first time that they can master any subject or craft, and that they can then build a career from what they've learned.

Criminon also offers courses which cover phonics and grammar, for those who must first master the ability to read before they begin the program.
The Criminon® Communication Course
Teaching How to Improve the Ability to Communicate Effectively

How often has a failure in communication precipitated a breakdown in relations or been the cause of violence? Too often, as most will agree. This course answers the question, is it possible for someone to handle any situation in life with communication alone? Happily, the answer is a resounding yes.

This section of the Criminon Program breaks down the subject of communication into all of its constituent parts, and thoroughly trains the student on each element before going on to the next, through a series of drills which increase the student's ability to confront people and communicate clearly and competently.
Students on the Criminon Communication course are paired up and work together with a partner, called a "twin". Each student helps his or her twin to successfully complete each communication drill.
The student is also taught to recognize where communication has broken down in the past and why, so that he can correct it in the present. And more importantly, he learns how to remain calm in the face of hostility or adversity, maintaining self-control and handling the situation with communication alone – and without violence.

Students of the course report not only feeling more calm, more able to tolerate others, they also say how much they simply enjoy actually speaking with people now, as opposed to talking at them before.
Overcoming the Effects of Drugs

Teaching the Effects of Drugs and How to Free Oneself from Drug Addiction

Currently, well over half of all crimes in the United States are related to drug use or are committed while the person is on drugs. The handling of drug addiction, and education which serves to keep someone from using drugs both go a long way in handling the problems of crime.

This course teaches the student exactly what drugs are and the effects they have on the body and mind. It explains how and why one becomes addicted to drugs in the first place and then details an exact regimen – which involves the use of vitamins and exercise – for freeing a person from the grip of addiction, and all without medical substitutes.
Those who study this course have routinely commented that having this information on drugs and their true effects is invaluable.

Personal Integrity Course
Ethics, Honesty & How One Can Correct Past Harmful Actions
The loss of integrity and self-respect are very real factors when considering an individual's descent into crime and unethical behavior. The recovery of both is the main concern of this course.

It begins with basic principles and culminates with exact steps the student can use to help himself – or another – regain personal integrity through the inspection of past harmful actions and then taking responsibility for them. The student must discover for himself what he did wrong and what should have been done instead
These inmates are doing the Handling Suppression Course as part of a Criminon on-site program.
The course also shows the student why maintaining integrity in the future is a central factor in one's own strength and happiness, and exactly how this can be done on a practical level. Ultimately, it is the recovery of his own self-trust which makes his rehabilitation viable, and that is exactly what this course delivers.
Handling Suppression Course
How One Can Handle the Negative Influences in Life

There is some truth in judging someone by the company they keep. It can easily be seen that those around us do influence our attitudes and behavior, for better or worse. And it doesn't surprise many to learn that criminals often consort with criminals and that they promote anti-social activities and influence others to continue such unethical and illegal conduct

These inmates are doing the Handling Suppression Course as part of a Criminon on-site program.
This section of the Criminon Program deals with establishing the skill to chart one's own course in life, with honesty and integrity, and to spot and disassociate from those elements which would tend to lead one astray.

The course teaches the students the characteristics of both anti-social personalities and social personalities, so that they may recognize both and know the differences between the two. That way, they can better choose their friends and associates, and become more aware of their own attitudes and be made less susceptible to those who would have them revert to crime.
Improving Conditions in Life Course
How to Evaluate and Improve One's Performance in Life

Offenders often lack the ability to recognize just how far they have wandered from acceptable conduct, much less legal behavior, and even then do not possess the knowledge or know-how to correct the problem and regain good standing.

The information in this course deals directly with the various states, or conditions, one can be in, any area of his life. This course also gives the student the skills necessary to correctly evaluate how well or how poorly he is doing in that area of his life, and teaches the exact steps one must do in order to improve his condition, whether it's high on the scale or low.

Successes often show how the course has helped offenders see their way out of their poor condition in regards to society, and those they may have harmed, and also how this knowledge can be put to use in a friendship, on the job, in a family, or just with oneself.
Parenting Skills Course
Parenting Skills and the Raising and Care of Children

Our parents learned from their parents and most likely taught us those same lessons. Unfortunately, lessons which seem to promote bad behavior or even illegal behavior are also learned in the same manner.

This course offers some real help on how to raise children so that they can learn the value of honesty, what it is to be a productive and valued member of society, as well as how to live a life with happiness and love. The exercises and drills also help the student with how to speak with children, and even how to teach and impart the precepts of The Way to Happiness, so the child may use them on his or her own.
This husband and wife are doing a course together and often bring their daughter with them. Family members can participate in Criminon courses at any of the Criminon Community Education Centers.
(c) 2008 RehabNZ.