I kind of figured I was destined for prison. I'm dead serious. I was born a realist and knew that the life I was born into meant there was little to no hope for a prosperous future. When I was [...]
My 25 years of experience doing time in prison make me an expert at avoiding the pitfalls of prison. All prisons are different, but many of the rules of conduct stay the same. Simple common sense will save you most [...]
Prisoners look upon the summer months in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) with dread and trepidation. For one is acutely aware that one may not survive another summer. Many do not. The deadly heat in Texas prisons is killing [...]
I spent the first few years of my natural life sentence muttering incoherently to myself and chewing my fingernails to bleeding nubs while I contemplated the most painless methods of suicide for American prisoners. How’s a 23-year old kid supposed to [...]
After spending 3 years in a medium security Ohio prison, a friend of mine once asked me if the time spent there had institutionalized me. At the time my idea of what it meant to be institutionalized consisted of simply forming [...]
Murph the Surf and I are walking in the rain past the steam plant heading back to the Southwest Unit. The chapel is off to our left, separated from the sidewalk by tall, thick hedges. We are coming from the Main [...]
Troy David has been released from prison! After saving up money for the first six months -- while he worked and lived in a halfway house -- Troy now has his very own, very lovely apartment in Harrisburg, PA and is [...]