In part 1 of EARNING FREEDOM, I played a game of, “compare and contrast”, while reading the life story of my latest hero,
Michael Santos.
Michael is my hero, in part, due to the fact that he took the time to highlight his own life and journey in a no nonsense way; and it arrived in my life at the perfect time, as I am building a mentorship program here where our main objective is to help the adults in custody here to take the steps towards wellness, create a vision, and ultimately solidify a plan of action for the transition home. Michael has given us a platform that helps in this effort.
What I have come to realize from his book is that we, as women, are getting the shaft in the prison system. The things he has access to, we are still fighting for.
The United States Sentencing Commission finds value in allowing us, as federal inmates, to utilize the PELL GRANT.
For two years, I have reached out to my friends in Washington and exhausted myself here, trying to get this going.
I have come to understand that it could be geographic. Alabama, as a state, has so many lawsuits filed by prisoners for mistreatment. I think it has to do with a very old mentality that prisoners, women especially, don’t need education.
Our education department is very behind the times, by BOP standards.
Another example of the vast difference is that of art. On page 270, Bruce is telling Santos that he likes his idea of spending the final years of his sentence becoming an artist or a musician, or studying a foreign language. Here at Aliceville, as an artist, there is no space for me to paint. There are hobby craft rooms that sit empty much of the time, but there are only two artists here who are allowed to paint. It’s the most bazar thing I have ever seen. I used to be very disturbed by this but then, this is one of the reasons I wrote a book called, “IN THE ABSENCE OF PAINT”.
One of the parts of my life that don’t overlap with Michael’s is that I have been in trouble before. I was almost the age that he was though, I was 21. I went to state prison for a number of concurrent drug offenses that all came from an ongoing sting operation. This left me on Parole in the State of Texas for 25 years. I relapsed at the very end of that long journey and caught this case.
During that time, I met a women named Nathalie Sorrels. She was the founder of TRUTH BE TOLD, a non profit whose mission was to help prisoners heal through creativity. My parole officer told me she had never in her entire career, granted permission for anyone to return to The Texas Department of Criminal Justice. I went in to the Hilltop Unit and did workshops where the women were I introduced women to the techniques of painting while telling them about my life, just enough to created safe space. The interesting thing is that they were all sex offenders. When they prepped me before going in, they told me that more than 88 % of the women were victims before they were criminals. I understood that.
Hurt people, hurt people but art heals. Creativity is the best medicine in the world.
My challenge here, with the AIC’s I am trying to help, is to get this place to see the importance of ART and EDUCATION.
On page 271, Michael is telling about the importance of saving money and preparing for his future, as he will be 50 when he gets out. I am 54 now. If I were to serve my entire sentence, I would be 71 when I am released.
When looking at the situation, factoring in that he will be 50, he asks, ” how will I start my life?”.
Whereas Michael saw opportunity in helping people with legal work as an answer to his question, I did it for years probono- in hopes that my efforts would be calculated by karmic weight.
Here at Aliceville, we rarely have access to a printer. Currently, I need to send paperwork into the court, yet we don’t have a way to purchase copy cards, we are in the process of changing over to a pin number but this has been dragged out by more than 2 months, thus far.
My ultimate goal has been to do my time with grace. Meaning that I, when being hated, don’t give way to hating. When being lied about, don’t deal in lies….yes, part of the formula given by Rudyard Kipling in the poem, ” IF”.
Michael is fond of the book 7 Habits of Highly Successful People and I like it too but I am more fond of Dale Carnegie, the old school methods her writes about in, ” HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE” and my very favorite, Brene Brown.
I fully believe in beginning with the end in mind. and I believe so strongly in the WIN WIN, that my clipboard has it on the back.
When I set out to begin the PEER SUCCESS TEAM I had the ultimate goal in mind- ” to help the AIC’s here find ways to understand the power of overall health and the power this brings, and to help them get started on their way. To change the vibe here from negative to positive.
I did this not only for the AIC’s but also, for the win win that bringing a positive vibration effects the staff as well.
For years I have told the AIC’s here, ” don’t bitch about it, be about it “.
