I read an article in this week’s issue of Time magazine that described the important role community colleges play in helping people develop marketable skills. Here in Taft prison, the Taft Community College offers courses that can play a huge role in helping offenders emerge successfully. Unfortunately, few take advantage of the magnificent educational opportunity.

In mentoring my fellow prisoners, I’m continuously emphasizing the importance of earning both education credentials and the skills that those credentials should reflect. Prisoners at Taft who discipline themselves may earn associate’s degrees in business, liberal arts, accounting, or science. Courses in math, English, and more specialized vocational subjects can change their lives; it saddens me to see so few prisoners commit the program wholeheartedly.

Certainly, I understand the struggles my fellow prisoners go through. As Maslow wrote about in his hierarchy of needs, it’s difficult to focus on abstract concepts when basic needs go unmet. As prisoners, we all struggle with separation from those we love. It challenges us to focus on learning sentence structure, algebra, and lessons from history when we’re worrying about holding onto marriages, or when we’ll be able to speak with our children. Yet I try to pass along the message to my fellow prisoners that one way of showing our family members our love is by preparing ourselves to provide for them in meaningful ways when we’re home. Every minute wasted watching television or playing table games is a minute we could spend to develop our minds. That has been a strategy that has carried me through more than 8,000 days and nights in prisons of every security level.

Today I woke at 2:06 to resume work on the fourth chapter of my new manuscript. I’m now on page 174.

I ran 10 miles in the early morning, before temperatures soared up to 108 degrees. My running tally now stands at 1,913 miles over the past 216 consecutive days.

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