West Side man says he is proof that changing thought patterns to stop violence works

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The CBS 2 Investigators have been digging into how brain science is being used to help combat gun violence in the city.

CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey sat down with an Austin neighborhood man who says he is proof that it works.

Jalil King said at one time, he was deep in a life of crime.

"At one point I was cool with it - I didn't care if I died at 20," he said. "I left in 2016 for an aggravated battery, upgraded for attempted first-degree murder.

He was skeptical at first when he began participating in a therapeutic effort to change his thought patterns and rewire how his brain is working.

"I'm like, 'Yeah, I don't know if this is going to work,'" King said, "but then you get started, and you start seeing the groups in here and how they conducted it - how people were sharing and all that - how we start connecting."

King met Hickey in the West Side's Austin community at an old high school building converted into offices for a nonviolence outreach group called READI Chicago.

In the building READI has been practicing a type of brain science known as cognitive behavioral theory — or as participants like to call it, "Control, Alt, Delete."

In 2021, King became a participant.

"So it's like you control your thinking," King said. "You alter your thinking and, then you delete it."

King — who spent five years in prison before getting out in 2020 — says for the first time, he learned how to process his emotions, and change his thinking, through this group therapy.

And after a year of reinforcing the new neuropathways in his brain, King says he is finally done with the streets.

"I feel like I'd be letting them down if I do something - for real though," King said.

READI Chicago associate director of workforce Marilyn Pitchford says she saw the shift in King.

"He stood out when he made his presence in the building," Pitchford said.

Pitchford knew King could help others who were also struggled with the instinct to pick up a gun.

"If he can do it, we all can do it," King said.

So now, King is a crew leader with READI Chicago — guiding others through the brain science program and workforce placement.

He hopes that the "Control, Alt, Delete," program will expand across Chicago.

"To have more of these programs out through the city, you're going to touch everybody," King said.

King says the program has given him a future.

Hickey: "So you are proof that this program works?"

King: "Oh yeah – anybody will tell you that. Especially the old me."

In addition to working full-time with participants at READI, King is now a student at Truman College - pursuing his Arts Associate degree and exploring different career paths.