My name is Montez Clayton I was born on January 3rd 1990 in Kansas City, Missouri. Growing up I was in and out of foster care so I went to a lot of different schools. I had my first child when I was 19. I was not financially ready but I’m grateful for my wonderful daughter. Total I have 7 children so I have a lot of work to do and I have no time to just sit around. I have 1 sister and 2 brothers my little brother got shot and he died the same day Michael Jackson died June 25th 2009 he was only 15 years old. I may have more siblings on my dad side but I never met him. I’m serving a 240 month sentence for Hobbs Act Robbery. This is the first time I’ve ever been sent to prison. I’ve been to city jail but never on a scale like this. Before I came to prison I was a working man 9 to 5 type of guy. Threw out my life I used drugs and alcohol I smoked cigarettes’ even while I played semi pro football. It’s crazy to me when I think back on it. However, I use to party a lot and that’s when life changed. I got behind on bills because I wasted my money on alcohol and drugs and other things I didn’t need .Next thing you know I got evicted out of my home for not paying rent. Now I’m homeless family won’t take me in didn’t have a real job anymore because I was always late to work. Working temp service jobs to pay people to stay over night to sleep and shower. My life was terrible and I got tired of going threw what I was going threw so I told myself if I can just pull a big lick and get enough money to get on my feet and take care of my kids I will be ok. So I started robbing places which was the worst decision I ever made in my life. I never knew it carried so much prison time maybe 10 years at most and i was thinking I was going state where their is parole and I could get out maybe in 3 to 4 years but the feds came got me and that’s when I knew my life was going to get worst. My thinking was irrational and here I am in prison. I’ve been in prison now for almost 6 and a half years now I haven’t done any drugs or alcohol or smoked cigarettes’ I don’t even have the desire to. When I got sent to prison I started off at a USP McCreary and for those who been to a USP know it’s a whole different level of hell. I was there for 4 years and then I got sent here to Leavenworth FCI last year in August of 2023. Leavenworth is the oldest federal prison in the united states so it’s a long history of how things were ran here but things are changing slowly. I like workout and play chess i love reading books. One day someone asked me to read a book called “Earning Freedom” by Michael G. Santos. The book changed my life i felt everything he was going threw he encouraged me to be a better man and life is not over I can still be successful. He knows how I feel and what I’m going threw he been here and done it. He is like a big Brother in my heart and I truly believe God is with him he is the ultimate mentor. I’m learning how to live. How else would I be who I ‘am today if I had not been who I was ? A sin or mistake should not define anyone their whole life. I believe this prison sentence has given me the opportunity to build a new life based on the principles of sobriety, honest and hard work. I was part of the problem and now I’m trying to be part of the solution
