News FeedAdjusting to Prison
Preparing for Happiness Through Adversity
The headline that crossed the news this morning revealed unemployment rates for March at 8.5 percent. That’s a number I watch closely, as it suggests the struggles I expect to face after I complete a quarter century in prison. If the unemployment rate is at 8.5 percent for all Americans, for those coming out of [...]
Hard Working Prisoners
I am a firm believer in the power of work, responsibility, and trust as motivating factors to inspire positive prison adjustments. Administrators could make much better use of these virtues to reform offenders. To succeed, they ought to look to the same types of incentive systems corporate leaders and small business owners use to motivate [...]
Prisons Do Not Inspire Growth
Prisons used in moderation serve as a useful tool for society. Used in excess, however, prisons lose their potency. I was convicted of a nonviolent crime in 1987 and I have been in prison ever since. My adjustment has made me better qualified to offer positive contributions to society, though I do not attribute my [...]
Quit Rewarding Failure
As I listened to the NPR broadcast at 5:00 AM this morning, I heard that many Americans were livid that executives at AIG would be splitting a bonus pool of $160 million. Executives at AIG had led a failed business model that has contributed to our global economic crisis. Taxpayer funds have been used to [...]
Prison Furloughs Can Lower Recidivism
American citizens have a vested interest in preparing offenders for successful re-entry into society. Those who leave prison without strong networks of support, without employment prospects, without a fundamental knowledge of the communities to which they will return, and without resources, stand a significantly higher chance of failure. When offenders revert to criminal activity upon [...]
Prison Guards Interfere with Corrections
Brenda asked me two questions with regard to my article entitled They’re Prison Guards, Not Correctional Officers. Brenda wanted to know whether I thought guards were trained to harass prisoners or whether the culture conditioned them to abuse their authority. She also asked whether I came across any prison guards who were not abusive. When [...]
Locking More People of Power in Prison Will Promote Prison Reform! Bring in the Governor!
News reports show that federal law enforcement officers have arrested the sitting governor of Illinois. Governor Blagojevich may soon follow his predecessor, Illinois’ former governor Ryan into federal prison. I’ve been locked inside various federal prisons since 1987, and it always pleases me when formerly influential members of society join our community of felons. Besides [...]
Seventy-Six Days Until My Release From Taft Prison Camp
I’ve been thinking a lot about the role I want to lead in society upon my release. As a prisoner confined in Taft Camp, I’ve come into contact with many people who lacked the privileges that I took for granted while growing up. Although I never would have thought of their struggles before, since sharing [...]
Seventy-seven Days Until My Release From Taft Prison Camp
Many years ago, when I was a sophomore at USC, I played in an important baseball game. We were the top-ranked team in the nation and I was scheduled to start at third base. The game was against the Korean national team and it was being held at Dodger stadium. My family was there to [...]
Seventy-Eight Days Until My Release From Taft Prison Camp
This afternoon I will lead a class seminar for thirty other prisoners at Taft Camp. The class is called the Entrepreneurial Compass, and it is usually led by my friend Michael Santos, who writes for PrisonNewsBlog. We both have been amazed at the number of business professionals who have been targeted for prosecution by the [...]
New Prisoners Must Prepare for Release
I’ve written many articles with hopes of helping new prisoners understand effective adjustment strategies. One simple article I recommend is Master Discipline, Expect Nothing. As a prisoner begins to adjust, he must simultaneously be thinking about how he wants to emerge from confinement. Preparations for release must begin the day an individual walks inside prison [...]
Watch For Prison Visiting Rules
Visiting in any federal prison requires discipline. That lesson sometimes eludes newer prisoners. The rules in every prison where I’ve been confined for the past 21-plus years specifically stated that prisoners were allowed to hug and kiss their visitors briefly at the beginning of each visit and again at the end of each visit. Most [...]
Eighty-Six Days Until My Release From Taft Prison Camp
TheSecond Chance Act of 2007was signed into law about one year ago. One of the provisions of that legislation was that it expanded the authority of prison administrators to release offenders to community confinement centers a lot earlier than was previously authorized. As a consequence of that legislation, I will report to the halfway house [...]
The Inspiration Behind Walt Jones’ Prison Adjustment
Kara wrote a comment in response to an article I wrote about my friend Walt Jones. She was inspired by the positive choices Walt had made as a long-term prisoner and hoped that her brother, who also was serving a lengthy prison term, could follow Walt’s example. Truthfully, the story I wrote about Walt did [...]
Eighty-Seven Days Until My Release From Taft Prison Camp
As a prisoner, I feel humbled in ways that I never expected. Sometimes, those feelings are more profound than at others. It is surprisingly easy to adjust to the daily living patterns inside the Taft minimum-security camp, and the ten months I’ve served have passed well. Yet sometimes I feel shaken with the reality that [...]
