I started preparing for my release when I first begun my sentence.
There was this older man by the name of Jim that would visit me at the Allen County Jail.
The Chaplin at the time was Elijah and he would come and get me out of the block to speak with Jim.
Jim would bring me these books to read one that stuck with me was a book call the University of Success by Og Mandino, it describe how a person success was dependent on their thought process.
It described how most people look to external things to determine their success, but Mandino pointed out it was the things that were internal that detrained our success. It reminded me of a popular scripture in the bible ( at the time I was holding bible studies in the county jail), “be transformed by the renewing of your minds”.
I went on to be sentenced and transferred to a federal prison in Pekin Ill. When I first arrived at Pekin FCI I was impressed by the variety of books the library held I decided to teach myself Algebra. I checked out a book called Algebra for dummies. I was somewhat obsessed with math due to me not doing so good at it while I attended college at IPFW in and Ivy Tech both in Fort Wayne Indiana, so I thought it would be great to learn it while I did my sentence. Me learning math led to me becoming a tutor at Pekin in the education dept…
I later went on the meet Mr. Santos while I was at Pekin he had a speaking engagement and I attended it I was impressed by his message of success, he in was one of us and made it. I wanted what he had so I joined the PPT shortly after I was transferred to a low security prison here at Thomson ILL.. Since then I have received 5 books through their non-profit and have work the material in them I have mailed off the work for two of the books. One was a book report on “Earning Freedom” and the other was a book called ” Digital Economy” I feel that both of these books have increased my chances for success. In Earning Freedom I learned how to maximize my time in prison to best serve me for success upon release and in Digital Economy I learned that there are endless opportunities in the digital world were someone who takes the time to learn about the digital ecosystem could seize many opportunities upon release. I have also read preparing for success after prison (I am currently still working on the book). I am currently work on Release Plan a book sent to my through the PPT non-profit.
The release plan is in my opinion the most important part of my journey through incarceration. I suspect this why it taking me longer than expected to complete, as it is an evolving plan.
I will continue to profile in the days to come as I see this is the continuation of my journey to Success.
Christian Shelton,
PPT student
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