Journal Entry: Alexander Rene Holcomb-10/04/2024-How am I serving my community?

Journal Entry

I serve my community everyday by working hard in my job in the unit. I do my absolute best at maintaining a great repore with staff and doing everything I can to help other inmates who struggle in their addictions and schooling. Since coming to Thomson “LOW” I have made sure that I have had a job for the entire time I have been here. I have been actively engaged in all of the opportunities that the FSA approved classes have been offered to me, as well as taking any recreation and education departments offer.

However, It has been very challenging for the inmate population here at this facility. This facility was recently redesignated as a low security facility but it is well known through the media and the problems that are still being imposed on the inmate population that this facility is still having many problems. It is difficult to program here because every 90 days or so we are locked down for weeks or months for problems that are not being caused by the population as a whole. Many AIC (including myself) have been issued incident reports that are issued inaccurately, often times having done nothing wrong, with clear procedural error yet they still refuse to address the problems actually going on. Just this last week our warden was quoted during A&O to the newest inmates that “this place was previously a USP and it will continue to be run like a USP.”

Even through all of this I am still working through writing a book, actively engaged in bettering myself everyday, frequently receiving visits while staying focused, determined and motivated to create a better future for myself. I maintain positive ties with my family and I am actively seeking positive people who may be able to help become a mentor to me. Lately, my family and I are trying to find colleges that still offer correspondence courses. It seems that in this post COVID era that many colleges that previously offered college courses to inmates have stopped offering them using a mail delivery system. I have been writing letters and my family keep looking for anyone who may be able to help me find a solution to this problem. I am trying to earn an associates in Business Administration or a similar type or level degree that will allow me to gain administrative knowledge in business creation, development and structure. With my extensive background in software development and innovation design I would like to be able to work my way into entraprenuership at some point in my career after release.

So, to summarize, these are the ways in which I am actively working on serving the current community I live with. Because I know that by doing everything I can while I am in prison to ensure I create successes while I am serving my sentence will ultimately be the deciding factor in many areas of my future when it comes time for people to look at the actions I have taken while I served my sentence and the opportunities that may be offered to me afterwards. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my writing. Have a great day.