Prison inmates say learning to play golf has changed their lives
A corrections center that has implemented a program for inmates to learn and play golf has been life-changing, its participants say.
"I made a lot of mistakes in my past, and I'm hoping to learn from them and grow," Mike Helmer, who is currently in a low-security prison at Cedar Creek Corrections Center in Littlerock, Washington, told ABC News.
Helmer said he just started taking golf lessons and said the game is teaching him much more then he imagined.
"The fact that I'm constantly showing up, even though I'm not that good, I know I can take that same mentality into life out on the streets when I run into problems or work related problems," he said.
Helmer is currently serving a 15-year sentence for shooting a man in the shoulder and pointing a gun at several others, according to court documents.
"It was a mistake that I wish never would have happened. I definitely feel bad about it, you know, like I ruined my life, my family's life, their family's life," he said.
Helmer is one of a dozen men at Cedar Creek Corrections Center that have been participating in the golf program.
"Initially, when it started, it was not about golf at all. It was about ... programming, idleness reduction, keeping people busy, bringing diverse groups together," Tim Thrasher, who started the Cedar Creek Golf Club, told ABC News.
Thrasher, the former superintendent at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, thought adding golf would be a good way to help effect positive change for the men.
"The rules of golf are the rules of life -- you know, the ethics, the etiquette, having to do things right when nobody's watching," Thrasher explained.
Niko Wiley is another member of the Cedar Creek Golf Club. Wiley is currently serving a 15-year sentence at Cedar Creek for his involvement in a drive-by shooting when he was 20 years old, according to prison officials. No one was hit in the incident, according to local media reports at the time.
"Growing up in an impoverished community, you kind of just gravitate towards the things that are not necessarily good for you, but you don't really know that at a young age," Wiley told ABC News.
Wiley said golf has already helped him see new possibilities for his life.
"I've always looked back on my crime ... thinking like, 'Man, I can't believe I was doing that type of stuff,'" he said. "I feel like golf hasn't really made me reflect, but it has helped me see what I look like moving forward."
The men in the Cedar Creek Corrections Center will be released within the next few years, and the hope is that the program will prepare them to become better members of society and to set them up for a successful reentry, center officials said.
"I think prison is about reform, and I think that you wouldn't want these guys getting out and going back to the same life that they led," Helmer said. "Why wouldn't you want to see some of these guys succeed upon release? And if golf is that avenue, why wouldn't you want see them out there trying?"
Both Wiley and Helmer said the golf program has changed their lives.
"One of the other biggest things that I've learned is that golf is just you. It allows you to be in your own mind at the right time, and you can focus on your breathing," Wiley said.
Helmer added, "It's definitely changed me. I know my anger had led me to where I'm at now, and being able to learn other ways to vent that anger and release it and not dwell on it [has helped]."
With more than 30 years working in corrections, Thrasher said it was "instilled in me very early on that the loss of freedom is the punishment."
"When you're in prison, it's our mandate as staff to help them gain the skills to be successful," he said.
Wiley added, "When people release from here, and they go back to the same environments, they do the same thing. And that's why recidivism is so high, because people aren't granted the opportunity to do things to help them expand their mind. I feel like an expansion of your mind is definitely an opportunity we need to have to be able to get out there and be successful."
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