For seven days a week I’ve been working 14-hour days at my desk in my cell.
I’m writing chapters for a new book. The publisher is waiting on the finished manuscript. Once published, I will donate copies, first, to all of the 122 federal prisons. Then I will get copies in at least one state prison per state.
From there, the focus will be juvenile detention centers and highschools. (It’s a personal development book with an emphasis on strategies I’ve learned and employed for overcoming the past by focusing in on and building a clearly defined future.)
I assist guys with their legal work, helping them secure their legal needs. This includes nearly every aspect of the legal world. I’m finishing writing assignments for the correspondence writing course into which I’d been accepted. And I’m completing advanced paralegal courses.
Work on these break up over 13 or so hours a day.
I spend one hour a day on the recreation yard leading a workout group, which doubles as a life-application course. It’s a program where life coaching meets high-intensity physical fitness.
Twice a week I facilitate classes in the Education Department, one of which is provided by Prison Professors and I recently helped get approved here.
Everything is a focus toward getting me as prepared for freedom as I can be, with the goal of hitting the ground running. To better my chances, I’ve built strategic partnerships with professionals who want to support a tech start-up that I’ve pitched to them. (I’ve done all the preliminary work for what will be the company.)
I came into prison when I was 23-years old. I’ve been in for over 24 years. The BOP has a motto that I read aimed at reentry preparation, saying that it starts on day one. Though the BOP does little to nothing in regards to reentry preparation, leaving it to those of us who have to carve out such endeavors on our own, I took the motto to heart. Every single day has been used as an opportunity to make a small investment in a better tomorrow. I’ve found that such investments add up over time. And they compound with interests.
