Journal of today’s activities:

Today I drove more than 200 miles around the Bay area to advance efforts I’m making to reverse the trend of mass incarceration. First I drove to Stockton so that I could meet with Patti Blosser, controller for the Golden State Lumberyard in Stockton.  The Stockton Lumberyard contracted with The Straight-A Guide Staffing Solutions division of our foundation to hire an individual who would’ve been considered at-risk of coming into the criminal justice system.

I hope to build relationships with other employers in Stockton and in the San Francisco Bay Area. Those relationships will result in more employment opportunities formerly incarcerated individuals can seize if they want to transition into the job market. Students from SFSU will work as interns to teach the Straight-A Guide Program that I developed, and I’ll also work with community-based organizations that have facilitators on staff who can teach. I’m grateful to Golden State Lumber for making the first jobs possible. By this time next year I expect to have many, many more employers who will assist with this vision of opening job opportunities for the formerly incarcerated.

Following my meeting with Patti, I met with Jerron Jordan and Sammy Nunez. Both men once served time but they now lead community-based organizations in Stockton. We spoke about our individual projects and the goals that we’re setting for 2014.

Then I drove to San Ramon and I met with Andrew Landini and Brooks Knudson from the media company Selling Up. Andrew and Brooks played essential roles in helping me develop the video portion of the Straight-A Guide. I picked up a few more sets of DVDs and I updated them on the receptivity we’re receiving in the marketplace for our life-skills program. It’s very exciting to make progress.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 133
• Miles run today: 0
• Miles run this week: 26.2
• Miles run this month: 132.4
• Miles run in 2014:
• 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:
• Today’s Weight: 163

Journal of today’s activities:

While preparing to run my 13th marathon of 2013, I had more clarity of thought regarding a new book I might write about the prison system. I recently finished teaching a course called The Architecture of Incarceration at San Francisco State University. The course isn’t about architecture in the sense of building design. Rather, I help criminal justice students understand how and why our nation’s prison system became the largest in the world. During the first sessions of the course, I lectured on the ways that Western civilization used to inflict torture for all types of criminal behavior. Then I lectured on how the system evolved. We spoke about the advent of imprisonment and the influences that caused prison population levels to grow in hyperbolic fashion over the past several decades. As I ran my thirteenth marathon distance for the year 2013 this morning, I contemplated the ways that I could use my course preparation and material to write a book on this subject.

Writing a book always requires a lot of contemplation in the beginning. With academic books like the types that The University of California Press publishes, I need to do a lot of planning. The next step requires that I write a chapter outline. If the outline satisfies me as a book I’d want to read, I need to write a few paragraphs about each chapter that I would propose. Finally, I would write a sample chapter and then complete the formal proposal. I would submit that package to Maura Roessner, the senior editor who invited me to contribute to UC Press. She would then send the package out to a team of scholarly reviewers. The professors who reviewed the manuscripts would write comments, basically indicating whether they would consider adopting the book for courses they teach about the criminal justice system. Then, once my editor and I considered the reviewer comments, she would present the completed to an editorial board at UC Press. It’s a very collaborative process. If the board agreed to issue a contract, I would then write the manuscript. Then there would be a series of marketing meetings and a production schedule. We would see a book sometime in late 2015 or early 2016.

I’ll write more about my decision in days to come.

I’m glad to have had these thoughts in my head today. They carried me through each of the 26.2 miles that I had to run. I had to run the marathon distance because I set a goal of running 13 marathons during the year 2013. Now I need to resume my work on writing an outline. The process will help me answer whether I can set time aside to write this new book on The Architecture of Incarceration.

 

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 132
• Miles run today: 26.2
• Miles run this week: 26.2
• Miles run this month: 132.4
• Miles run in 2014:
• 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:
• Today’s Weight: 163

Journal of today’s activities:

After meeting with Maura Roessner, a senior editor at the University of California Press, I’ve been contemplating whether I wanted to write another book about American prisons. Since most of my books describe the ways that I advanced through longer than a quarter century in prison, described adjustment patterns of other prisoners, and reasons that we as a society should reform our nation’s prisons and sentencing laws, Maura gave me several prison or crime-related books that UC Press published. She said I would be in good company if I would publish with UC Press. And I know that I would. UC Press is one of the premier academic publishers in the world. I expressed genuine enthusiasm about working with her while we dined on an exquisite lunch together.

That enthusiasm has turned to a question mark. I don’t know whether I can divert attention from the many projects that I currently have under way. This morning I ran 13.6 miles, and with each step, I thought about the time I would have to commit to write another book. During the decades I served in prison, I had a disciplined writing schedule. I woke before three each morning and I wrote by hand until late afternoon. I used to break to eat and to exercise, but I spent the rest of the hours writing sentences and paragraphs.

I no longer have that liberty of time. Now I have to prioritize the projects that have the most promise of spreading my message that mass incarceration is the greatest social injustice of our time, though I must simultaneously earn a living. Those commitments require that I work to build products and services that facilitators may use to teach individuals how to reject criminal lifestyles and improve critical thinking skills. I also work to help the formerly incarcerated enter the labor market. I also work to educate citizens about the injustices associated with our prison system.

The question is whether writing a book will expand upon those efforts or distract the progress that I’m making. I need to answer that question before year end. Today I spent a lot of time drafting different ideas, but wasn’t able to come up with a clear answer of how I would write a new book about prisons and the ways that they contribute to perpetuating cycles of failure in our country.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 131
• Miles run today: 13.6
• Miles run this week: 25.35
• Miles run this month: 106.2
• Miles run in 2014:
• 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:
• Today’s Weight: 166

Journal of today’s activities:

The prison system needs reform, and I’m grateful for every opportunity to advance that effort. I’m determined to make sense out of the 26 years I served as a federal prisoner. My long journey inside allowed me to learn from the people who served time alongside me, from scholars who wrote about the prison system, and from leaders who transformed society. All of that experience helps me to understand my role. I must work to:

• Create programs that facilitators may use to teach others how to reject criminal lifestyles, criminal associations, and embrace a values-based, goal-oriented approach to overcoming the challenges of life.
• Assist the formerly incarcerated as they strive to transition into the labor market as law-abiding citizens.
• Educate more taxpaying citizens about steps we can take as an enlightened society to improve our nation’s prison system.

With those goals in mind, I spent the early morning on Friday working with my friend Justin Paperny to create more marketing materials. Revisions I made to the newsletter will help him announce products and services we offer to professionals who work with prisons, jails, and schools that serve at-risk populations.

In the late morning I had a wonderful telephone conversation with Dr. Ed Rhine, a former director of the Ohio prison system. We each wrote chapters for Joan Petersilia in her book The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections, so I had a connection with him. I’m happy that he has agreed to mentor me and introduce our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program to officials in Ohio’s prison system.

Following my conversation with Dr. Rhine, I enjoyed a wonderful lunch meeting with Maura Roessner, a senior editor with the University of California Press. She contacted me

last week with an invitation to discuss opportunities for a book project. Several years have passed since I’ve written a book for an academic market. Her interest in my work intrigued me and sparked ideas about how writing a new book for the scholarly market could really advance efforts I’m making to bring more awareness to the great injustices of our nation’s prison system. She treated me to a wonderful lunch at a hotel restaurant in the Berkeley community. While I feasted on an exquisite duck salad, my first ever, we spoke about the publishing industry, my career as a writer, and steps we could take to begin a book project together. In order to advance the project, I’ll need to develop an outline, write a sample chapter, and submit a formal book proposal. Maura would then send the proposal out for review. Then an editorial board would decide whether to issue a publishing contract. After that, I’d have to follow through and write the manuscript. The entire process would take between 18 months and two years.

I’m enthusiastic to have this opportunity. Now I must stare at the wall and contemplate the next book I’d like to write. I’ll begin that work this weekend and write an update before year end.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 130
• Miles run today: 0
• Miles run this week: 11.75
• Miles run this month: 92.6
• Miles run in 2014:
• 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:
• Today’s Weight: 167

Journal of today’s activities:

President Obama commuted several prison sentences on Thursday. I’m happy for the people who will leave federal prison and return to their family members. At the same time, I find it appalling that President Obama lacked the courage to make a bigger statement about the injustices of our nation’s commitment to mass incarceration.

As a second-term president, he has the power to lead, and he has exercised that power in many ways. Yet when it comes to the embarrassing reality of our nation’s prison system, he has failed. He should take actions that would show the world that we incarcerate far too many people and that people served sentences that were far too long in our country. Those were the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and Attorney General Eric Holder. Anyone could find troubling data that showed how our prisons have become intergenerational cycles of failure. I’ll work to bring more awareness to this injustice, and I hope taxpayers will encourage our nation’s leaders to bring sensible prison reforms that would allow relief to the people who have served far too long for nonviolent crimes.

Our federal prison system confines more than 200,000 people. When it came to commuting federal prison sentences, President Obama should’ve sent a strong message that he wanted change. He could’ve acted boldly and commuted the sentences of 100 or 500 or 1,000 people who already served far too long for nonviolent offenses. We’re all witness to the greatest social injustice of our time, and it’s a shame that so few people recognize the need for change. I’m building a career around all I learned through the 26 years that I served in federal prison. These seeds that I sow to spread awareness may help more people recognize the urgency for sensible reforms that will build safer communities.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 129
• Miles run today: 0
• Miles run this week: 11.75
• Miles run this month: 92.6
• Miles run in 2014:
• 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:
• Today’s Weight: 167

Journal of today’s activities:

An assistant director from the Washington State Department of Corrections contacted me today. I’m inspired and eager to prove worthy of his interest. In a personal message, he wrote:

You have a very completing story… I wonder if there isn’t an opportunity for collaboration.

I look forward to connecting with him. By advancing discussions, I can show how our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program can contribute to community safety. Our growing client list includes jails, prisons, detention centers, and places that serve at-risk youth. We provide facilitators with the tools they need to teach people from at-risk backgrounds that they can become more than the bad decisions of their past. The open-ended program we offer removes all doubt that an individual who works hard can reject the criminal lifestyle and pursue a values-based, goal-oriented approach to life that leads to his living as a law-abiding, contributing citizen.

I’m enthusiastic about playing a role in transforming lives by spreading the Straight-A Guide across the state of California, and across the nation.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 128
• Miles run today: 7.25
• Miles run this week: 11.75
• Miles run this month: 92.6
• Miles run in 2014:
• 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:
• Today’s Weight: 165

Journal of today’s activities:

This past Wednesday I made a presentation on our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program for students and staff at the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. I spoke about the emphasis I’ve placed on making values-based, goal-oriented decisions. That type of disciplined decision making keeps me on track and moving forward, freeing me from distractions that can take me off course. I lived that way for so long, and I’m so rigid in my beliefs about how hard I must work to succeed that others find me kind of nuts. Those assessments don’t bother me in the least. They never have. All through my prison journey, people judged me as being one who didn’t know how to relax or let up. I suppose that by interviewing so many people who returned to prison following their initial release, I became obsessed with the preparations I felt necessary to make. Those preparations, I became convinced, would minimize the likelihood of failure as I launched my career.

Following the full day of presentations with the staff and students, I spoke with Dr. Angela Haick and her team, including Rose Luerra. We spoke about how wonderful it would be to have my first Christmas in society after 26 years of Christmas seasons as a prisoner. When I said that I intended to work and that I didn’t intend on buying a Christmas tree, Rose made a very persuasive case about why I should purchase a tree for my wife. She, like many people, say that I cannot always live for the future. Instead, I must train myself to learn how to enjoy the present and celebrate the liberties that I now I have. After 26 years of imprisonment, that is a tall order for me.

I spent a lot of time working today. My final project was writing a response to an article that my friend Seth Nobmann sent me about the traits of successful people. As I wrote the article, I thought back to the Christmas tree. I’ll make sure that I buy something to celebrate the Christmas holiday with Carole. After all, she deserves more from me than I’m able to give.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 125
• Miles run today: 4.5
• Miles run this week: 4.5
• Miles run this month: 85.2
• Miles run in 2014:
• 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:
• Today’s Weight: 167

Journal of today’s activities:

The Bureau of Prisons has a new website at www.BOP.gov. It looks much more user friendly than version that existed when I was released from prison. A first glimpse of the website indicates that the BOP is shifting its image. While During the 26 years that I served, neither I nor the other prisoners around me perceived that the agency placed much (if any) emphasis on the importance of family or community ties. If this website is any indication, the agency is making some changes. I even saw a letter from the current director, Charles Samules. He wrote that the BOP’s long standing approach has been that “Reentry begins on the first day of incarceration.” Huh. The staff members who supervised me, apparently, missed that memo. Indeed, on numerous occasions I had staff members tell me that I was too far away from release to be thinking about what I should do when I returned to society. Others blatantly told me that the BOP doesn’t care anything about my life after release from prison. It only cared about maintaining security of the institution. I’m glad that he is taking the time to clarify the mission of the BOP.

I’ll research this new website more and write a review for our website. I’ve got considerable amounts of work to complete today as I catch up with past business and prepare for new business.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 124
• Miles run today: 11.3
• Miles run this week: 60.7
• Miles run this month: 80.7
• Miles run in 2014:
• 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:
• Today’s Weight: 166