In my 22 year career as a criminal defense paralegal I was able to develop skills that were unique to the job. One such skill was getting errant defendant clients to turn themselves in after absconding. During the course of their case we’d inevitably become close because they’d get me on the phone more often than the attorney. I knew the way to get them to come back for their court date was not to threaten that their mom would lose her house since she bonded them out and used her property as collateral, although I’d tell them that, too. No, the way to get them to come back was to get them to focus on the fact of getting the court case over with, doing their time and getting back to their life again as soon as possible. I’d remind them they could use their incarceration time to formulate a plan for the future. Maybe go back to school, learn a new skill. I’d refocus their attention so I could reframe what they were experiencing. Instead of focusing on “I don’t want to go to prison,” and re-running in their mind all the horror stories, I’d turn their attention to, “Let’s get this over with so I can get back to my happy life.” I’d refocus them to stop decrying the injustice of it all, but to put things in motion so by the time they are free, they are walking into a plan.