Another ascendivist manifests as if from thin air.

Ascendivism is the opposite of recidivism. It encourages a focus on success.

Charles Thornton is another example of an ascendivist. Which begs the answer why use a term like "ex-con" to identify a person?  Especially one who has so obviously removed himself from the thoughts and behavior of a convict.

Charles Thornton is a real estate magnate.  But that was not always true.  He was arrested for breaking and entering at the age of 16 years old.  Today, he owns that very same property. 

As a husband, father and grandfather who owns 18 properties Thornton is totally different from the person he was thirty years ago.  That was when he went to Lorton Reformatory, the then local prison for the District of Columbia.

A native of Northeast Washington, DC Charles was a standout on the city's H.D. Woodson High School basketball team.  Only Nineteen years old at the time he was given a ten year prison sentence.  He returned to a city totally changed by the crack cocaine epidemic.  He began using the drug and his life took a turn for the worse.  In only two months his life became a total shambles.

Then came his transformative event and a new direction.  His daughter gave him a look which changed him for ever.  Simply looking away when she saw him triggered a difference in his thinking and behavior.  Thornton joined a twelve step group where he met Joe Lusky.  Lusky inspired Thornton to "get involved with the American system."

Thornton's involvement began with the purchase of his first investment property, which also happened to be Lusky's residence.

Although he no longer develops real estate, Thornton continues working with returning citizens.  He shows them what it takes to reenter society.  He is doing for others what was done for him.

The Demise of the Prison Industrial Complex

Several years ago I came to realize that the Prison Industrial Complex had a chink in its armor. Although it may seem its effects are absolute, in fact they are not. In the last year I have come to realize there are people who go through the PIC, do their time and come out at an elevated level of capability after their incarceration experience.

Ascendivism is a term used to define a focus on success. People who are considered ascendivists include Malcolm X, Vickie Stringer, "Chef Jeff" Henderson, Don King, Chuck Brown, Reginald Dwayne Betts, and Judge Greg Mathis. The typical ascendivist takes on a creative endeavor to redefine their thinking and behavior. Additionally, they tend to experience a "transformative event" which causes a break with their past thinking and behavior, usually involving a loved one.

A great deal of research, and study has gone into those who reenter the Prison Industrial Complex within a year. Those who do not are not studied, documented or even named. The primary objective with all the foregoing information is to produce a documentary to inform the public that a great deal of what results from incarceration experience is the ability of the formerly incarcerated person to make choices which are in their own best interest.

Chaz Williams of Black Hand Entertainment is an ascendivist.

Chaz Williams robbed 60 banks. He spent 15 years in federal prison as a result. In 1989 years of appeals resulted in his early release. He turned to the music industry to reinvent himself as CEO of Black Hand Entertainment. The BET Network profiled him in an episode of it's "American Gangster" series.

After a number of bank robberies with several crews of up to twenty people, Chaz was eventually sentenced to serve two terms consecutively totaling 95 years. While in prison he through a number of legal maneuvers had the sentences reduced. One sentence was vacated on a technicality. A 25 and 20 year sentence were changed to run concurrently rather than consecutively. to 25 years.

While in prison he acquired bachelor's degrees in business administration and human service administration. When he was released in 1989, Williams had seven years of parole. Not being able to find a job, which was a requirement of his parole, he decided to go into business for himself.

Black Hand Entertainment initially was a promoter of parties. The concept for the business was formed while Chaz was imprisoned. Through the help of his former fellow inmates the business began to succeed. Williams success led to him doing
after fight parties for Mike Tyson. He was the first promoter to bring Snoop Dogg to New York City. Eventually, he would build a music production studio and produce an album entitled "Black Gangster."

Inspired by the Donald Goines novel of the same name, the album was intended to be a soundtrack to a movie. However, Chaz was unable to acquire the film rights. The music was performed by some of the most successful artists at the time including Jay-Z, DMX, Ja-Rule, and 50 Cent.

Having onetime been 50 Cent's co-manager, today Chaz Williams manages Foxy Brown.

Williams spends time in prison currently, not as a inmate, but as a role model to others. He voluntarily mentors those on the road to success serving as a guide directing them where they hope to go.

Ascendivism and the alpha male

In "Brothers and Keepers" John Edgar Wideman portrays a contrast between the lives of himself as award-winning novelist and his younger brother Robby serving a life-sentence for robbery and murder.

Jack Johnson = Alpha male imprisoned (criminalized) after refusing to acknowledge the hierarchy of "white" alpha males.

The thirteenth amendment to the US constitution reads:

"Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction." = "20th-century slaves."

The African Ink Road is evidence that an economy based on scholarship is viable. People who are in prisons could turn into the forefront of a new economic system.

Ascendivism

Etymology of recidivism
Noun

habitual or chronic relapse, or tendency to relapse, especially into crime or antisocial behavior.

Latin recidivus < recidere,

Taken from French recidivste.

The term recidivism originates from Arnould Bonneville de Marsangy's 1844 book "De la Recidive."

Etymology of ascendivism

noun

habitual tendency to achieve a higher state of accomplishment becoming beneficial to society.

Ascendivism is the use of processes of personal transformation creating desirable behavior after experiencing the consequences of undesirable behavior. It may involve treatment, training or neuro-linguistic programming to create thoughts culminating in desirable results. Ascendivism is quantified as the percentage of people who have had incarceration experience who within a year of said experience become benefits to society by not repeating that experience.

Ascend to go up, move up, rise.

Ascendivism is a tendency to rise above a previous condition or mode of behavior, especially advancing to virtuous behavior.

Wilbert Rideau:Ascendivist

Wilbert Rideau was sent to Louisiana's notorious Angola prison in 1961, at the age of 19, for killing a bank-teller hostage after a botched robbery. After 44 years and multiple retrials, he was released on Jan. 15, 2005.

R. Dwayne Betts on the teaching poetry in the DC Public Schools

R. Dwayne Betts on vimeo