Ronald F. Day, Ph.D., is Vice President of Programs at The Fortune Society in New York City. He is passionate about reentry, promoting desistance, dismantling mass incarceration, and addressing the stigma of incarceration.
As someone who spent fifteen years in prison, I know that a simple but effective way to help reform the system is to refrain from using negative vocabulary, words and terms like ‘felon,’ ‘ex-con,’ or ‘inmate.’