Q. How do the educational credentials you’ve earned influence your prospects for success upon release?
A. The educational credentials I have earned while in the BOP system have given me the prospected influence for success upon my release by my hard-work, openminded approach and dedication and commitment to take the opportunities I am given in each course for seriously. I am determined to learn from each class that I take. No matter how small of a lesson or amount of information it may be, I feel that in everything we do, we can learn something. Nobody is truly a master of anything. There is always something to learn. If you’re not learning, you’re dying! In my opinion, I am very grateful for having been given the opportunity to come to prison in this era because it really seems that the prison system in its approach to incentivize self-development by passing the FSA has changed the way prison time is spent among the AIC population. People are more focused on taking classes and bettering themselves, they are more focused on going home, rather than their reputation among the population. I appreciate that society and lawmakers are realizing that people absolutely do change.
I am what is considered a non-violent drug offender, I have never been to prison before so coming to prison was a complete shock to everything I am, but the first thing I did when I got to prison was sign up for classes. Other than my first month in custody, I have been earning FSA credit EVERY SINGLE MONTH that I have been in custody in the BOP. I have not stopped searching for and taking classes. Being at FCI Thomson (low) in just a little over a year that it has been open and I have been here I have taken over 16 classes. I just finished a Dialectic Behavioral Therapy class that was over a year long! I think that was one of the best classes I have ever taken in or outside of prison actually. I learned a great deal from that class and I will remember what I learned in that class for the rest of my life. I am very grateful for having been given the opportunity to enroll and complete that class.
I was just informed that at the end of September at my next team meeting, I will be eligible to transfer to a minimum security camp. Like Mr. Santos, from the very beginning of my prison sentence, I have worked hard planning and structuring my entire sentence. Fortunately, reaching a camp was a 5th year goal of mine and I will be completing that goal within the 5th year! My family and I are very proud of that accomplishment!
