Self-Surrender Checklist: Exercise and Education

Those who anticipate a journey through federal prison may ease their stress by participating in self-directed programs that strenthen the body and mind. Such a strategy has kept me strong through more than 23 consecutive years of imprisonment and I recommend it to every new prisoner I meet.
In my book Prison! My 8,344th Day, I show readers how I renew my commitment to such a strategy every day. One reason that focusing on exercise and education helps me is that I do not need to depend upon the prison system to offer programs. A prisoner can make meaningful strides toward improving his fitness and broadening his mind through his own efforts. All it takes is discipline and a 100 percent commitment to emerge stronger, with more opportunities than when he began.

With regard to exercise, all federal prisons offer opportunities to improve fitness levels. Some prisons make free weights available, others do not. Some prisons make cardio machines available such stepping machines, elliptical machines, and treadmills. Others do not.

As I’ve tried to document through my writing, however, more important than the resources available inside a federal prison, an individual must rely upon the resources available from within his own spirit. If a man can muster strength from within, he can triumph over his environment. It wouldn’t matter whether federal prison administrators locked him inside a cell, whether he was confined to a high-security federal penitentiary, or whether he was confined to within the boundaries of a federal minimum-security prison camp. A man’s state of mind is much more crucial than his surroundings, and through my writings I strive to prove it every day.

That leads to educational development. Some prisons offer courses through which an individual can work toward earning academic credentials. Those opportunities may include the high school equivalency certificate, a college degree, or even a degree from a university. Some may offer vocational programs. Others seemingly do not offer much of anything at all.

Again, regardless of what the prison offers, an individual who embraces a 100 percent commitment to emerge stronger than when he went in will find opportunities. Or he will create them. I always urge the prisoners around me to develop skills and credentials that can lead to success upon release. In my books, I document the ways that I strive to live as an example.

New prisoners must work continuously to renew hope. They may rely upon a commitment to improving their fitness through exercise, and they may improve their minds through educational exercises. By reading about my long journey through prisons of every security level, they should have confidence that regardless of what obstacles or restrictions imposed by the system, a man can always make progress.
I urge those who are about to begin lengthy prison terms to read Prison! My 8,344th Day. It will show them that through discipline, any man may triumph over the adversity of his environment.