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A Long-term Prisoner’s Reaction to Bush’s Clemency Orders
As I sat watching the CNN broadcast on Monday evening, November 24, 2008, I read a streaming announcement on the bottom of the screen. President Bush had commuted the sentences of two federal prisoners and granted pardons to fourteen other people. Although that news should have filled me with optimism, I was filled with a […]
President Bush Will Pardon Turkey before Humans: A Pardon Primer
I am about to pass my 22nd consecutive Thanksgiving holiday as a federal prisoner. President Bush, I am sure, will take yet another opportunity to pardon a turkey. If history repeats itself, President Bush will not show such compassion to the more than 200,000 people serving time within the federal prison system. This President has […]
Prison Reforms We Can Believe In
Ultimately, society relies upon these prisons as tools to encourage law-abiding behavior. Yet flaws within the design of the prison system render it less effective than its potential. Statistics show that more than six of every ten people in America’s prison system return to confinement after their initial release. Reforms can lower those recidivism rates […]
Does Writing Influence My Status in Prison?
I’ve never fit the profile of a long-term prisoner. Rather than adjusting in ways that would bring me power through violence, I focused on educating myself. Instead of thinking about living in prison, my total commitment was in preparing for the life I wanted to lead upon release. That strategy required me to suspend my […]
Does Prolonged Prison Exposure Leave a Negative Influence?
People who meet me for the first time have a hard time believing that I have been in prison since 1987. When I tell them that I served more than 16 years in higher security prisons before administrators transferred me to minimum-security camp, they think that I’m exaggerating. Yet it is true. Almost all of […]
Overhaul the Prison System: Prison release based on merit not calendar
If society does not expect prisons to do anything more than warehouse human beings, then prisons succeed brilliantly. Yet, if taxpayers want a better return on their massive investment of public funds, then they need to overhaul the prison system.I am hopeful that the change our political leaders promise to bring to our country will […]
The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want To Be by Jack Canfield is a book that encourages the readers to take responsibility for their own success. The book was divided into six sections, each of which contained scores of short chapters that offered strategies for reaching one’s highest […]
Love affair grows in a prison marriage based on love and commitment
Readers sometimes write me with questions about my marriage and my wife. They want to know how we keep our love alive and whether we anticipate challenges when we begin living together. Through books I’ve written, and articles available on www.criminal-indictment.com, I’ve described my relationship with Carole, whom I’ve known since grade school. I am serving […]
Does Anyone In Prison Respect Nonviolent, Goal-oriented Prisoners?
My focus has never been on earning respect in prison. I strive to prepare for the life I want to lead upon release, and I do not allow anything to interfere with my progress. In books I’ve written about prison, and articles published at www.criminal-indictment.com, I’ve described how a different set of values pervades higher […]
Who Protects the Female Prison Guards?
In the prison system, every staff member is considered a prison guard first. It doesn’t matter whether the individual works as a secretary, a receptionist, a nurse, or any other position. If the individual works for the prison system, that individual has an obligation to work toward preserving the security of the institution. When I […]
My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror
My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror is an autobiography describing the career path of Louis J. Freeh, who was a former director of the FBI. Prior to his post as FBI Director, Freeh had been an FBI agent, a U.S. prosecuting attorney in the Southern District […]
Reflecting on the Long Prison Sentence I Serve
I made the bad decision to sell cocaine when I was in my early 20s. That decision led me into criminal charges, indictments, convictions, and a 45-year prison sentence. Despite having no history of violence or prior imprisonment, my sentencing judge and the U.S. prosecutors wanted me to serve a significant portion of my life […]
Why I Don’t Succumb to Prison Influences
I have never embraced the values that prison environments perpetuate. I recognize prisons as exquisite designs to condition offenders for further failure. My interest has never been in cultivating a reputation within prison boundaries. Rather, I have always thought about the life I wanted to lead upon release. While I was beginning my term inside […]
How I Avoided Prison Subcultures
Prisons are like mini communities, totally separated from the wider society. Those who live inside find cultures that differ in remarkable ways from the America that most citizens know and love. In what I call the real world, citizens strive to reach their highest potential. People earn respect by working to educate themselves, by contributing […]
Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters by Bill Tancer
As a long-term prisoner, I’ve never had a direct experience with the Internet. Through my wife and partners, I’ve been writing content for my Web site at MichaelSantos.net since the late 1990s, but all of my knowledge about the Internet and steps I could take to use it more effectively has come through books and-technology […]
