Once you start a criminal life, there is no way back, is it?

According to Bureau of Prison stats:
* there is a 5-year recidivism rate of 77 percent for state prisoners
* there is a 5-year recidivism rate of
45 percent for federal prisoners

Its not 100 percent so somebody is making it on the outside. If a person is not on parole and free to come and go there is nothing preventing some from moving to a different town or state, going to court and legally changing their name, getting a decent job and making new friends. And changing their attitude, not carrying around a chip on their shoulder, tough person attitude them against me viewpoint and there is no reason a person can't live a normal honest life. Stay away from where those kind of people hang out.

Apparently about 25 percent of state and 60 percent of federal convicts learned how to say no to their old lives so it's possible.

▪ “He that is walking with wise persons will become wise, but he that is having dealings with the stupid ones will fare badly.”—PROVERBS 13:20.
There is no minimizing the influence—for good or for bad—that our associates can have on us. So often, people do what they have no intention of doing—all because of peer pressure or, as many say, because they fell into bad company, with disastrous results. In Bible language, “stupid ones” refers, not to those who lack intelligence, but to those who ignore the wise counsel. Young or old, if we do not choose our friends and associates wisely, that is, by the good standards from the Bible, we can expect that we will “fare badly.
These and many other verses in the Bible succinctly explain why people—perhaps otherwise ordinary people—do bad, even shocking, things. While it is helpful to understand the forces that move people to do terrible things, there is hope of a change for the better. Please go to www.jw.org and watch one of many life stories also one about a previous criminal under "Interviews and Experiences - How The Bible Transform Lives." select "From Prison To Prosperity."