Everyone makes mistakes and everyone, especially prisoners punished by law and subsequently released, should be allowed to have the opportunity to be corrected. While in prison they were taught correction courses which expected them refomed and be "reborn" (geng sheng, rehabilitated). Since 1989 and with numerous volunteers, the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation has entered prisons throughout Taiwan to provide care. This thesis takes as its research subjects several "Tzu Chi Reading Club" mem-bers who studied Jingsi Aphorisms (Buddhist texts) since 2011 at the Pingtung Prison. The author explored in the context of the circumstances then, how Tzu Chi volunteers encouraged prisoners to accept the teachings of Buddhism, and how they accompa-nied the prisoners after release. The assistance covered such areas as seeking em-ployment and joining the ranks of Tzu Chi volunteers. The latter form of assistance aims to train former inmates to provide long-term spiritual counseling to other reha-bilitated prisoners. Several released inmates who had taken the reading course fol-lowed the team of rehabilitation volunteers from Kaohsiung to "do Tzu Chi (volun-teerism)." After two years of training, the former inmates became Certified Male Vol-unteers and members of a Tzu Chi anti-drug team. Being members of the Tzu Chi Teachers' Association also, they entered schools and confessed their wrongdoings in front of the students. They bore witness to their pain and high price paid for drug abuse in the past. Focusing on three rehabilitated prisoners who joined Tzu Chi at different times, the thesis described and analyzed how Tzu Chi volunteers helped them find a sense of belonging in the Tzu Chi Dojo (community), how they inculcated self-confidence and trust in the volunteer support system, and how they gradually moved away from offenses bygone. The thesis documented that life could be trans-formed and that prisoners could be reborn.
Current academic research on "rehabilitated persons" falls largely in the field of soci-ology or criminology dealing with issues of rehabilitated persons' return to society, and with the impact of family support system. This research focused instead on reli-gious belief and humanistic healing. The philosophy that Master Cheng Yan con-stantly preached was to practice the teachings of Buddhism and exert its power of en-lightenment in life. Tzu Chi provides a self-healing field for the congregation by way of the aphorism, "learn by doing; awaken by learning". Tzu Chi volunteers applied in modern society the power of religion to engender the rebirth of rehabilitated people via concrete social practice of The Four Immeasurable Minds of Buddhism. The au-thor hopes that this research be valued by the academic community. Somes issues of utilizing social and religious resources in support of the rehabilitated ex-prisoners are discussed in the conclusion.
