Prison Journal: Day 8,204
January 25, 2010
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 as an officer in the military. The only man I hadn’t met was a new arrival, and he carried himself with a professorial air; an educated man, I presumed, because he was absorbed in an issue of The New York Review of Books.
Taft is the third prison camp where I’ve been confined, and during the six-plus years that I’ve served in camps, I’ve met numerous people who previously led fascinating careers. They were men of distinction, yet some bad decisions along the way brought them into trouble with the criminal justice system. Although the camp may confine its share of prisoners who embrace criminal values, I would say that at least half of the prisoners in any given camp lived as law-abiding citizens before their current troubles, and they look forward to return to their communities as law-abiding citizens upon completion of their terms.
That reality must be a relief to those who contemplate self-surrendering to federal prison. The worst fear is the fear of the unknown, and I hope that my daily journal entries relieve some of the tension for individuals about to face prison. I hope my work demonstrates that with discipline and a deliberate adjustment plan, it’s possible to emerge from prison even stronger and more prepared to create success and happiness. That’s what all of my work shows, but for those who want more than to read about prison experiences, I suggest a phone call to my friend, Justin Paperny. He’s been through it, and now has a career helping others master the challenges that accompany confinement.
Today I had to break my exercise into two sessions because of a commitment I made to speak at the camp’s Toastmaster group. I ran 10 miles in the early morning. Then I returned later, after the Toastmaster meeting, to complete my strength training with 500 pushups.
[Consecutive running log: 3,630 miles over the past 409 consecutive days]
[Pushups in 2010: 8,200]
Monday, 25 January 2010
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