With a flurry of classes underfoot, this past week was a blur. I signed up for every FSA and ACE class that I could in order to get 15 days off per month of my sentence as well as lower my recidivism, and only had 2 offered (and completed) until this month. Now, I have 9 classes per week (4 FSA classes, 4 ACE classes and 1 certification culinary course), including 2 ACE classes I teach per week.
Each of my classes and certification were chosen as part of my Release Plan that I wrote upon arriving at the prison. Since the day I self surrendered, I have been planning what I want to do once I leave prison. And for those who know me well, it does not include just one thing. I took a Carpentry FSA class so I can be more useful and have training with tools and building homes so I can be of more help with the Tiny Homes project for the homeless as I was in the planning stages before my incarceration. They broke ground in January 2025 in Felicity, OH, and I look forward to reaching back out to them with additional skills to help build more. There are no homeless shelters in Clermont County, OH, and this tiny home village is a first step in caring for the unhoused in this rural county. I am currently obtaining a ServSafe certification, which lasts 5 years and is a requirement for anyone running a food truck or managing a restaurant. I wrote a business plan for a short term refuge including a food truck to serve the homeless and provide care management resources, so this certification will come in handy once I leave prison.
I am taking two psych FSA classes to help address my PTSD, Emotional Self Regulation with equine therapy and Foundations, which is required right before I am released. I also am taking a Creative Writing course which teaches you how to send manuscripts to publishers, which will come in handy for the two books I am finalizing in prison. Also, I am taking Public Speaking, though I have a lot of experience in doing this already, I can always learn more. I am taking a Women’s Career Exploration FSA class, which is a requirement, and a Real Estate class, which I am excited about should I be able to start a 5013C short term refuge that includes a restaurant and housing. I am starting an Electrician FSA class in a couple weeks as well as a follow up to the Carpentry class. One of the classes I am teaching will wrap up in a week, and the other has 7 more weeks to go. One of the classes is “Battlefield of the Mind” by Joyce Meyers, which is a book that I broke down into 8 weeks and teaches how to have a positive mindset regardless of your situation and how to battle the negativity in your mind. This book helped me a lot when I first came to prison, so I turned it into a class. The other class I teach is Career Coaching/Interviewing Skills. Within this class, each inmate will learn how to apply for jobs after release, have a resume, learn good interviewing skills, networking and salary negotiations. I am helping them with resources in this class as well, as I have reached out to many organizations and friends and family members who have shared some wonderful resources these past couple of months. I wrote the curriculum for both classes, and they have been helpful to the women who have attended (at least that’s what they have told me).
Also, I have reached out to multiple law professors at several colleges to be a guest speaker in the fall regarding my case and an insight to my experiences within the judicial system and in prison. I want to end the stigma of people who are incarcerated, and get the information about my non for profit, ASAP out in the community once I have it established upon release. I am preparing the SOPs and business plan while in prison so I can hit the ground running once released. I have always been self-disciplined, so making the time pass quickly in prison by focusing on my future has been a priority. This prison sentence will not keep me down, even with the life changing horrible experiences and setbacks that have occurred. I find something to be grateful for every day. At the top of that list is of course my husband, children, family and close friends that I am blessed to have in my life. I am also hopeful that with others in prison learning from the things I do will inspire them to have hope for themselves. Prison can be a hope-sucker. It is isolating and harsh, even cruel sometimes. The women I have advocated in here, whether by getting them resources for their mismanaged cases, psycho-social help, remediation writing and more are worthy of support and grace, not judgment. I pray one day that laws change to remove mandatory minimum sentences and the justice system gets a complete overhaul. I will continue to learn, network and assist in anyway I can to make this world a better place, one step at a time.
If you have any questions, advice, support or words of encouragement, please feel free to write me back here, or you can mail me on plain white paper within plain white envelopes to:
Carolynne Parker 69123-510
FMC Lexington Satellite Camp
PO Box 14525
Lexington, KY 40512
Hope your week is going well!
Carolynne
