Does Anyone In Prison Respect Nonviolent, Goal-oriented Prisoners?

By · Sunday, November 16th, 2008 · Comments Off on 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 […]

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Who Protects the Female Prison Guards?

By · Saturday, November 15th, 2008 · Comments Off on 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 […]

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My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror

By · Saturday, November 15th, 2008 · Comments Off on 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 […]

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Reflecting on the Long Prison Sentence I Serve

By · Friday, November 14th, 2008 · Comments Off on 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 […]

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Why I Don’t Succumb to Prison Influences

By · Thursday, November 13th, 2008 · Comments Off on 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 […]

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How I Avoided Prison Subcultures

By · Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 · Comments Off on 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 […]

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Topics: Prison culture · Tags: ,

Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters by Bill Tancer

By · Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 · Comments Off on 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 […]

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Religious Programs in Prison

By · Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 · Comments Off on Religious Programs in Prison

Although I have not participated in organized religious programs in prison, many prisoners find them soothing and therapeutic. Every prison where I have been held has had a room or rooms that were reserved for chapel services. They were nondenominational, as prisoners from every faith used the chapel rooms for worship services. With staff budgets […]

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Why Don’t More Prisoners Take Advantage of Improvement Programs?

By · Monday, November 10th, 2008 · 1 Comment »

America is a magnificent country because it inspires hope in all of its citizens. Anyone who applies effort and works toward excellence can succeed. Every American has the power within to reach meaningful goals. Those who live in prison, on the other hand, struggle through constraints that are much more like communism than the society […]

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How to Avoid Problems and Violence in Prison

By · Sunday, November 9th, 2008 · 2 Comments »

During the more than 21 years that I have served in prisons so far, I’ve never had a single altercation with another prisoner. I’ve been in minimum-security prison camps since 2003. Prior to that year, however, from 1987 I served time in prisons of higher security. I walked through many puddles of blood, lived amidst […]

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Topics: Adjusting to Prison · Tags:

We need President Obama to appoint a new Director in the Bureau of Prisons

By · Saturday, November 8th, 2008 · Comments Off on We need President Obama to appoint a new Director in the Bureau of Prisons

The President appoints Director of the Bureau of Prisons. The  Director presides over an agency that employs more than 25,000 people and incarcerates more than 200,000 people. The Director sets the policy for the Bureau of Prisons. All employees of the BOP carry out the Director’s mission, and the prisoners must live within the rules […]

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Extortion Targets in Prison

By · Friday, November 7th, 2008 · Comments Off on Extortion Targets in Prison

I received a letter from a reader who asked whether other prisoners had ever extorted me in prison. The answer is no, I have never succumbed to extortion. That does not mean prisoners have not tried. I spent the first 16 years of my sentence inside higher security prisons. When I was locked inside the […]

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President Obama election and newly elected Congress give real hope for prison reform

By · Thursday, November 6th, 2008 · Comments Off on President Obama election and newly elected Congress give real hope for prison reform

Two days have passed since millions of Americans elected Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. For the sixth time, I watched election poll results from inside a federal prison. I sat in one of the television viewing rooms at Taft Prison Camp, cheering when the networks called Pennsylvania for Obama. Then […]

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Why I Regret that I Sold Cocaine and Fought the Criminal Charges

By · Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 · Comments Off on Why I Regret that I Sold Cocaine and Fought the Criminal Charges

When I was 21-years-old I joined a group of friends in a scheme to sell cocaine. That was a terrible decision that changed the course of my life. For nearly two years, I was deeply involved in setting up a network that transported the cocaine and distributed it through a supply chain. Those actions resulted […]

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Relationships Between Prisoners and Guards

By · Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 · Comments Off on Relationships Between Prisoners and Guards

The relationships between prisoners and guards differ in accordance with security levels. In minimum-security camps, there is a much less hostile atmosphere. I have been confined in minimum security camps since 2003. Currently I am confined at Taft Prison Camp, and I find the officers here to be friendly and unobtrusive. They do not go […]

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