My name is Anthony Johnson. I am from Destin, FL. Due to a warped perception and false perspective, I’ve been in and out of prisons and jails for the last 30 years. I blamed the fact that I was born into poverty as an excuse for my entitlement issues and as a means to justify my attachment to hustling. For a long time, I couldn’t shake the foolishness of this way of thinking. I was released from state prison in May of 2014 and in my thirst to regain my “street status”, I walked right into the middle of an ongoing investigation that entangled me in the loose threads of its outer web. While in the county jail fighting those charges, I made the decision that this would be the last time that I abandoned my responsibilities, my children, or my family. I would never again settle for this type of lifestyle where the end result is either being locked in the bathroom with another man or six feet underground. Laying in that jail bed, I began planning how I was going to do my sentence. In my previous sentences, I was the jail “kingpin”, continuing my criminal activities. After losing everything I owned, I honestly started this sentence the same way. I made a few trips to the SHU and on the last one, I realized I was back where I needed to be to reach the mind state of the young man I was in that county jail cell. I took and passed the GED exam. I did so well that they immediately asked me to be a tutor. To further my education, I took Marketing, Business Management, Business Administration, Culinary Arts, and a Personal Training Course. All of the ACE classes that each prison I’ve been at has to offer from 7 Habits, Non-Residential DAP, and Parenting to Anger Management, Small Business and Money Makeover, and then some. I am currently the Quality Assurance Manager in the UNICOR program. On the weekends, I mentor young men in my spare time in a program curriculum I created called P.I.T.Y. (Pulling In The Youth). This program focuses on educating and curbing their enthusiasm and attraction to violence and gang participation. A part of this course is called Character Attractiveness which changes their perspective and perception and prepares them to become productive members of society. I teach them how to apply for jobs, write resumes, business and grant proposals, dress and conduct themselves at an interview, establish credit, open a bank account, and anything else they may need to be legitimate and prosperous. I plan to start a non-profit organization to continue on in this vein as soon as I get myself established after I am released. I would love to have your help in my making my ideas a reality. I will stop at nothing. I no longer think outside the box, I now have removed myself from the “box” mentality and just think. Thank you in advance for your assistance in the creation of the Newleaf Organization of Development…
Respectfully submitted
