Journal of today’s activities:

Today was a cleanup day for all of the business that I conducted during my trip to Los Angeles. I don’t know precisely how many one-year licenses Justin and I sold for the Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program because some purchasers would order licenses for multiple facilities. I expect that we will receive a minimum of three new purchase orders for our curriculum, but we could receive 25 or more purchase orders. In any event, I’m very enthusiastic about our prospects for to reach more than 100,000 people this year.

While visiting with my grandmother and mother, my mom handed me a photograph from my early days in the penitentiary. I posed for the photo while I was confined at the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta, probably when I was in my second or third year of confinement. I had already begun living the values-based, disciplined adjustment that would carry me through the 26 years that I served.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 152
• Miles run today: 15
• Miles run this week: 15
• Miles run this month: 99.83
• Miles run in 2014: 99.83
• Miles I need to run to reach my 2,400-mile running goal for 2014:
• Number of miles I’m ahead of schedule or behind schedule: 20.99
• Today’s Weight: 163

Journal of today’s activities:

I’m coordinating with a television producer from the PBS NewsHour. She wants to film me as I’m teaching the Straight-A Guide. I’m really enthusiastic about working with her. To advance that project, I woke before 2:00 am this morning to begin setting the groundwork. These types of projects are complicated because I must first apprise officials from various jails about the project. Then I must seek their approval to allow television cameras into the jail. At the same time, the television producer must coordinate her team for the filming. We’re striving to obtain permission to film in early February. I worked for several hours to write a summary of the project. Then, I spent several more hours writing follow-up emails to all of the people I met during my trip in Los Angeles. I was happy to visit with my mother and my grandmother last night and early this morning. Then I flew home to San Francisco and I enjoyed a wonderful reunion with my wife. In the evening, I had a business dinner with my friend Lee Nobmann.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 151
• Miles run today: 0
• Miles run this week: 52.53
• Miles run this month: 84.83
• Miles run in 2014: 84.83
• Miles I need to run to reach my 2,400-mile running goal for 2014:
• Number of miles I’m ahead of schedule or behind schedule: 12.56
• Today’s Weight: 163

Journal of today’s activities:

Today I presented our Straight-A Guide Life Skills curriculum to a group of facilitators who work at the probation camps in Lancaster, California. They are part of the Los Angeles County Office of Education. Following the one-hour presentation that I made to the senior administrators and leadership staff, I presented to a group of young men who were studying in a classroom. As soon as I walked onto the compound, people began running to me as if I were a source of inspiration for them. They had read some of the books that I wrote as part of the Straight-A Guide Life Skills curriculum. Before leaving, several of the young men asked me to autograph books for them. I feel an incredible sense of meaning when I see that young people read my work, especially when I learn that the curriculum I wrote inspires them to make better decisions.

After Lancaster, Justin and I drove to Ventura to meet with officials from the Ventura County Office of Education. We made a presentation to a principal and two staff members, and I expect that our meeting will result in at least one or two new purchase orders for our one-year licensing agreement to use the Straight-A Guide Life Skills Curriculum.

We all can become more than the bad decisions of our past, but neither change nor improved circumstances come by accident. We must pursue a deliberate course of action, which was the message I worked to show them.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 150
• Miles run today: 10
• Miles run this week: 52.53
• Miles run this month: 84.83
• Miles run in 2014: 84.83
• Miles I need to run to reach my 2,400-mile running goal for 2014:
• Number of miles I’m ahead of schedule or behind schedule: 19.13
• Today’s Weight: 163

Journal of today’s activities:

Justin and I had several productive sales meetings for our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program. First we met with senior officials from the Los Angeles County Office of Education. I’m really enthusiastic about installing our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program in the Los Angeles County school district. Then we met with officials from Orange County office of education. We have a verbal purchase order for the purchase of 10 new one-year licensing agreements from Orange County. Following that meeting, Justin and I went to meet with officials from the National Guard’s Sunburst Challenge Academy, in Orange County. The National Guard was our first client and we’re very happy to work with the facilitators who are teaching our program to several hundred cadets. If Justin and I hit our sales goal, we anticipate that more than 100,000 students will learn from our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program in 2014. We’re becoming the change that we want to see in the world.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 149
• Miles run today: 7.25
• Miles run this week: 42.35
• Miles run this month: 74.65
• Miles run in 2014: 74.65
• Miles I need to run to reach my 2,400-mile running goal for 2014:
• Number of miles I’m ahead of schedule or behind schedule: 15.52
• Today’s Weight: 164

Journal of today’s activities:

Justin picked me at the Los Angeles Hilton and we drove to a meeting with several representatives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The law enforcement officials listened as I described the strategies that guided me through a quarter century in prison. I spoke about how I packaged those strategies in our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program. After listening, a commander from the jail invited me to go make a presentation to a group of men who were serving time inside one of the LA County Jail Facilities. I enjoyed making the impromptu speech before the men. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department purchased three, one-year licenses for our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program.

Following a long meeting with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Justin and I went to meet with Brad Fulmer. Brad, a former professional baseball player, was the first investor in our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 148
• Miles run today: 0
• Miles run this week: 35.1
• Miles run this month: 67.4
• Miles run in 2014: 67.4
• Miles I need to run to reach my 2,400-mile running goal for 2014:
• Number of miles I’m ahead of schedule or behind schedule: 14.84
• Today’s Weight: 163

Journal of today’s activities:

I flew to Los Angeles this morning. My partner Justin and I coordinated several meetings to present our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program. I left my home in the early afternoon so that I could do some work on my computer at the San Francisco airport before the flight. Since I would be staying in Los Angeles until the weekend, I had to check a bag. When I picked it up, I saw that the handle broke. I boarded a shuttle bus to the Hilton Hotel near the Los Angeles Airport. After checking in, I changed and went directly to the swimming pool. Outside temperatures were only 60 degrees, but the water felt comfortably warm for exercise swimming. During the evening I had dinner with Nichole Hendrix, a television producer who has expressed interest in working on a screenplay for television or film about my journey through a quarter century in prison.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 147
• Miles run today: 11
• Miles run this week: 35.1
• Miles run this month: 67.4
• Miles run in 2014: 67.4
• Miles I need to run to reach my 2,400-mile running goal for 2014:
• Number of miles I’m ahead of schedule or behind schedule: 21.41
• Today’s Weight: 163

Journal of today’s activities:

Today I heard a radio story about my journey that Karina Ioffee prepared for KALW, on 91.7 FM in San Francisco. I’m grateful to Karina for showing an interest in my work. She visited me at San Francisco State University one evening when I was teaching last semester. We spoke for a while in the office where I work, and she also visited the class where I taught the course titled The Architecture of Incarceration. A week later, Karina visited our home so that she could interview my wife, Carole.

Karina’s story does a remarkable job of describing my work. I’m thankful for every opportunity I have to reach a wider audience. More people should learn about the ancillary consequences of America’s massive prison system.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 146
• Miles run today: 10.1
• Miles run this week: 24.1
• Miles run this month: 56.4
• Miles run in 2014: 56.4
• Miles I need to run to reach my 2,400-mile running goal for 2014:
• Number of miles I’m ahead of schedule or behind schedule: 16.98
• Today’s Weight: 163

Journal of today’s activities:

While running this morning, I visualized another version of the Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program. I’ll write the new version for low-level offenders, including people convicted of driving offenses like reckless driving or driving under the influence. I’m theorizing that people who live recklessly are more susceptible to escalating levels of criminal behavior. I’d like to reach them. As a young man, I disregarded responsibility and I wasn’t willing to listen to positive role models. If I had an opportunity to learn from someone who paid a heavy price for his criminal behavior, I may have avoided losing so many decades to imprisonment.

I’m thinking that I could create a Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program that differs from our 50-hour program. Instead, I could create the program in 10-hour blocks, 20-hour blocks, 50-hour blocks, and 100-hour blocks. The individual would enroll in the program that worked best for him. Justin and I would market the life skills program to the judicial system, to prosecutors, and to defense attorneys. We could use at as an alternative-sentencing system. Rather than sending an individual to prison, judges could sentence the individual to one of our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program. I’d like to work with universities on this project, and I’m going to begin making inquiries later this week.

These thoughts about a different Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program came to my mind while I ran 14 contemplative miles.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 145
• Miles run today: 14
• Miles run this week: 14
• Miles run this month: 46.3
• Miles run in 2014: 46.3
• Miles I need to run to reach my 2,400-mile running goal for 2014:
• Number of miles I’m ahead of schedule or behind schedule: 13.45
• Today’s Weight: 161

Journal of today’s activities:

I drove to Sacramento to meet with officials from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department today. After 26 years in federal prison, I’m grateful that high level law-enforcement officials welcome me and listen as I speak about the value that our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program can bring. As I wrote in my book Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-year Prison Term, my transformation began while I was held inside of a large county jail. That’s why I feel so passionate about helping other people in jail. I want others to grasp the message that the decisions they make while living in custody will influence the life they lead upon release. If they prepare themselves well, they can emerge from confinement with values, skills, and resources that translate into success. That was the message I gave to the representatives I met with from the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department.

Following my meeting with the Sheriff’s Department, I drove to meet with Professor Jennie Singer, from California State University, Sacramento. I am going to work with Professor Singer to design research instruments that facilitators can use to collect data from those who participate in our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program.

I’m very pleased to work with my partner Justin Paperny in building collaborative relationships with law enforcement, academia, philanthropy, the media, and corporate America. Together we can change the wrongheaded commitment to mass incarceration. The innovative progress we make will lead to a more efficient criminal justice system.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 143
• Miles run today: 14.1
• Miles run this week: 46.1
• Miles run this month: 16.3
• Miles run in 2014: 16.3
• Miles I need to run to reach my 2,400-mile running goal for 2014:
• Number of miles I’m ahead of schedule or behind schedule: -3.41
• Today’s Weight: 164.5