Prologue—Welcome to the Prison Professors MasterClass: Digital Economy
Digital Economy is a MasterClass we’re creating as a follow up to our course: Preparing for Success after Prison. The MasterClass will help participants develop an understanding of the rapidly evolving digital economy. Through a series of ongoing, stand-alone lessons, students will become more fluent with subjects that include:
Cryptocurrency
DeFi (Decentralized Finance)
Smart Contracts
Blockchain
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Social Media
Influencer Marketing
And more
Each lesson includes examples on how knowledge of the digital economy can lead to income streams, with examples of building businesses, investing, or speculating, with real-time numbers. More knowledge, or fluency with the digital economy can help justice-impacted people overcome challenges associated with a transition to society after imprisonment.
Our introductory course, Preparing for Success after Prison, urges participants to invest time in personal development and learning how to think differently. With this MasterClass we encourage people to continue advancing their preparations. By working through the self-directed lessons, participants develop more skills and position themselves to open more opportunities.
The Prison Professors Charitable Corporation offers this course as part of its advocacy efforts. We’re on a mission to improve outcomes for people in jails and prisons. For various reasons, institutions may not allow people to access the internet, classrooms, teachers, or even books. The Prison Professors nonprofit exists to fill this void.
Regardless of institutional resources we aspire to help people prepare to thrive through prison and upon release. For that reason, we offer these lessons in a multi-modal format, including a self-directed paperback workbook for those who do not have access to digital platforms.
Lessons on living as the CEO of our life require participants to prepare for success. That means they must be willing to:
Do Hard Things: Regardless of resources a prison system provides, people must invest in themselves.
Define Success: Each person is different, and each person must pursue success on his or her terms.
Persevere: Anticipate challenges, obstruction, and difficulties, but continue pursuing success.
Memorialize Your Journey: Build a resume that will show your commitment to learning and adding value.
That’s the process to prepare for success. Success, however, isn’t about the process. It’s not about getting certificates or time credits. Success is about results. Each participant must learn how to work toward getting results. To get the results, a participant must believe that success is possible.
Building a pathway to success upon release requires that we stay current with our learning, and that we prepare to adapt to a changing world. Regardless of what obstacles we face, we’re all responsible for sowing seeds that will lead to our highest potential. We have to live in the world as it exists, without excuses, understanding that circumstances won’t always be as we would like.
As high recidivism rates show, too many people allow external circumstances to keep them in a cycle of failure and struggle. They live with the misguided perception that the best way to serve time is to forget about the world outside. Rather than preparing for success upon release, they give up, allowing the negativity to consume them as they focus on a prison reputation. Those people frequently face new challenges upon release. They struggle with unemployment, underemployment, homelessness, or further problems with the law.
By preparing for success upon release, people become more skilled at developing plans, setting priorities, creating tools, tactics, and resources. They become self-reliant, resourceful, capable of earning an income, regardless of the job market.
Although our introductory course—Preparing for Success after Release—isn’t a prerequisite for this self-directed master course, we recommend participants work through the lessons. The introductory course offers suggestions on how to think different from others in a prison setting, and how to think differently from a pre-incarceration mindset.
The introductory course will validate the commitment Prison Professors makes through all our courses:
We never ask anyone to do anything that we’re not doing.
In this course, I’ll serve as an ambassador for lessons that I’m learning from Ryan Salame (pronounced Say-lum), who has been volunteering with our nonprofit. Besides teaching me about his experience with cryptocurrencies, Ryan has directed me to other areas where I can research information.
I’ll do my best to aggregate this information on decentralized finance and disruptive technologies.
We want justice-impacted people to learn how they can use this knowledge to create income streams upon release. It aligns with our nonprofit’s mission of #NoExcuses.
Regardless of what challenges a person faces, or what crisis exists in a person’s life, every person has a responsibility to learn and to create opportunities. That no-excuses mindset got me through 26 years in prison, and it empowered me upon release.
For those who don’t know who I am, or the nature of our mission, I’ll provide that backstory in the next lesson.
We’ll keep these lessons relatively brief so that we can distribute them without charge through:
Digital platforms, such as Edovo or institutional channels,
Download from our website at www.PrisonProfessors.com.
Softcover workbooks,
DVDs for jails and prisons,
Audio podcasts,
Audio books,
Non-fungible Tokens, and
YouTube videos
Our nonprofit advocates for changes within the criminal justice system. We’re striving to persuade stakeholders to:
Authorize more incentives that will allow people to work toward higher levels of liberty through merit.
Introduce work-release programs for people who develop solid release plans and show their commitment to living as law-abiding, contributing citizens.
Open channels for people in prison to memorialize their journeys, so they can more easily advocate for themselves as they strive to recalibrate and succeed upon release.
Our nonprofit, Prison Professors, offers these lessons for the singular purpose of helping people learn more about the digital economy. I provide information on my personal investments to show that even a person who served 26 years can participate in the digital economy. I am an investor and a speculator, understanding the risks. No one should invest in any asset class without a strategy and a plan. Always develop an understanding of investment risks—especially with cryptocurrency.
Critical Thinking Questions for You:
In what ways have you prepared yourself to understand the digital economy?
How do you see technology changing jobs in the future?
What digital skills do you think will be most valuable upon your release?
Remember, critical-thinking questions do not have right or wrong answers. Your responses should show your pathway to learning, and the ways that you’re using time inside to prepare for success upon release. Use this opportunity to show your commitment to building an effective release plan, one that does not rely upon government assistance.
We invite participants to become a part of our advocacy. Each person can open a personal profile on a website that our nonprofit sponsors at www.PrisonProfessorsTalent.com.
Profiles become public, allowing anyone with access to the internet to view an “extraordinary and compelling” adjustment through prison. Learn how to differentiate yourself by becoming more valuable to society, and you will open opportunities to thrive.
Memorialize your preparations for success by sending your responses to the critical-thinking questions that accompany each lesson. We offer instructions for participants who want to build a record, showing why they’re extraordinary and compelling.
Depending upon your access, share your story and responses using the manner that works best for you:
Send through email to Interns@PrisonProfessorsTalent.com
Subject line: Digital Economy Course
Send through regular mail:
Prison Professors
℅ Digital Economy Course
32565 Golden Lantern, Suite B-1026
Dana Point, CA 92629
Send through the Edovo tablet
Prison Professors
℅ Digital Economy Course
32565 Golden Lantern, Suite B-1026
Dana Point, CA 92629
Evolving Lesson Sequences:
Lesson 1: Digital Economy: Prologue to Course
Lesson 2: Digital Economy: Instructors, Tokens, and Bitcoin
Lesson 3: Digital Economy: Satoshi Nakamoto