There is a way to change them. The statuses changed some more in 6.2. You will need to do some coding though to do it cleanly. See the section statuses and follow the links to get the status plugin information.
https://developer.atlassian.com/display/JIRADEV/Preparing+for+JIRA+6.1
You must be a registered user to add a comment. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in.