The Time is Now for Prison Reform in America

This morning, Sunday October 19th, I woke early to watch the morning news reports and saw that supporters of Barack Obama donated more than $150 million to his campaign in September, and that General Colin Powell endorsed Obama’s campaign for the presidency. Karl Rove’s electoral map showed that if the election were held today, Obama […]

Why Can’t Guards Stop Prison Rape?

In my book, Inside:Life Behind Bars in America, one of the chapters describes a gruesome rape scene. The scene took place in a high-security penitentiary. Two wily and hardened convicts lured two new prisoners who were weak into a false sense of security. The group of four prisoners snorted meth and drank pruno together. Then, […]

About the Bureau of Prisons

My wife sent me an article from BOP.gov that is titled About the Bureau of Prisons. The article states that the BOP “helps reduce the potential for future criminal activity by encouraging inmates to participate in a range of programs that have been proven to reduce recidivism. My experience of having been locked within various […]

Stay Out of Trouble and Keep a Positive Attitude while Serving a 45-years

Living in prison is not easy. I know because I began serving my sentence when I was 23-years old. Now I am about to turn 45. It’s been a long time, yet I feel blessed with all the opportunities that have come my way. Although I expect to serve between three and five more years, […]

How hope keeps drugs out of prisons

Over the past 21-plus years, I have served time in prisons of every security level. While I was locked inside the walls of a high security penitentiary, I saw significant problems with drugs. The problems were not much less in medium-security prisons, or in low-security prisons. Ironically, when administrators transferred me to minimum-security camps, in […]

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

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 […]

How I survived Prison Without Becoming Anyone’s “Bitch”

Despite the more than 21 years that I have served, I have not once had an altercation with another prisoner. That was by design. I completely understood the perilous environment in which I was forced to live. Men with whom I was confined, especially during my first decades, were violent and predatory. Some were rapists. […]

How to Avoid the Negative Drama of Prison

My focus during this lengthy prison sentence has always been on preparing for the law-abiding life I wanted to lead upon release. I understood that I would spend several decades in prison. Yet I was only 23 when I was locked inside a high-security penitentiary. If I did not focus on how I wanted to […]

Delusions Prior to a Criminal Trial

When I was 23 years old, I was arrested by federal authorities. They charged me with crimes related to trafficking in cocaine. They did not seize any cocaine from me. Nor did they have any recordings of my voice, or tangible evidence that I thought would convince a jury that I was guilty. I was […]

Minimum security prison camp vs high security prison

As a result of serving more than 16 years in higher security prisons, I really know how to appreciate my placement in a minimum-security camp. Other prisoners, especially those who are serving time for white collar crimes, fail to appreciate the comparable levels of freedom we enjoy in the camp. That is understandable, because those […]

Does the Corrections System Care About Inmates?

After having served more than 21 years in prisons of every security level, I would conclude that very little correcting goes on. These places are more like human warehouses. Changes may come, but for now there does not seem to be a lot that would suggest to me that the system particularly “cares” about inmates. […]

Challenges and strategies in prison

I had never been in prison before, and the first time I had to walk through a puddle of human blood, I knew that I was amidst constant danger. I was 23 years old and locked inside the high walls of a high security penitentiary.My goal was to avoid the chaos while simultaneously preparing for […]

Sexual Encounters with Prison Staff

In my book Inside; I described incidents where guards participated in illicit sexual relationships with prisoners. Chapter two described one prisoner who spoke about paying guards for sex, and in chapter ten, I described a prostitution ring that existed in the penitentiary where one guard served as a prostitute for gang members. Some of my […]

Criminal Probes and Indictments for White Collar Crimes

A few months ago I interviewed Jeff, a corporate executive serving a prison term at Taft Camp. A bad investment decision he made on behalf of a publicly traded corporation for whom he worked in Northern California led to an indictment for wire fraud. The corporation notified federal authorities when the investment went bad. Through […]

Minimizing Prison Terms for Broadcom Executives

The national newspapers have been reporting on the criminal prosecutions of the Broadcom founders. I followed the extraordinary rise of that company’s valuation with much admiration for its founders. Now they face criminal charges for white collar crime, and it’s a tragedy that they may serve time in federal prison for charges related to options […]