Every night (or late afternoon) before I sleep, I read a passage from the Bible. This habit has carried me through many years of prison. I’m not a deeply religious person when it comes to abiding by the traditions and rituals that bring comfort to so many people, but regular prayer, the Bible, and reflection [...]
One essential key to a productive journey through prison—and I suspect through life—is creativity. Through creativity, the mind is challenged to read the world, to evaluate strength and weaknesses, and to focus energy on adding some kind of value. Some people find creative outlets like drawing or music, but for me writing has always helped. Currently I [...]
Today a young prisoner–I’ll call him ‘OG’–told me about his life as a gang member. OG is only 23 and he grew up with out a father in Southern California. His neighborhood, as he called it, encouraged its male adolescents to join one of the various street gangs. The purpose, he said, was to make [...]
Last night I deviated from my usual 5:30 p.m./asleep before 6:00 p.m bedtime routine. President Obama was giving his State of the Union address and I stayed awake to listen. I’ve now listened to 23 such addresses. I wander how many more State of the Union speeches I’ll listen to from prison. President Obama inspires me [...]
Today I happened to see a segment on CNN describing a proposal Governor Schwarzenegger is making to build prisons in Mexico. His budget problems necessitate that the State of California make changes to its growing crisis of confining more prisoners than it can afford. Apparently, the state confines too many Mexican nationals and the governor [...]
Yesterday I met Ron, a prisoner who surrendered to Taft Camp earlier this month. He is a friendly man who grew up in Chicago but made his home in California for the past several decades. Prior to self-surrendering, Ron read a considerable number of articles that my wife makes available through our website and he [...]
A pleasant surprise for many newcomers to minimum-security camp is the community of other prisoners. I sat in the library writing this morning, and I knew five of the other six prisoners who worked quietly beside me. Three were lawyers, one man was a CPA, and the other man I knew had spent 25 years [...]
I frequently speak with men who self-surrender to prison. When they hear that I’ve been incarcerated since 1987, they want to know how I’ve managed to serve so much time without losing my mind. The truth is that prison has strengthened me on many levels, and I appreciate opportunities to suggest strategies that will help [...]
It’s a crazy thing growing older in prison. I’m not old, and because of regular daily exercise, I feel vibrant, strong and full of energy. Yet I’m 46 now, and I know that my mind and body is changing. I feel in excellent physical condition, but I don’t run as fast as I ran 15 [...]
One of the privileges of life in federal prison is access to a law library. I’ve never been in a law library outside of prison and I’m sure that prison law libraries pale in comparison to those that lawyers rely upon. But over the decades that I have served, I’ve educated myself by spending thousands [...]
