Journal of today’s activities:

Straight-A Guide Logo

Today was my day to teach at the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. I woke at 3:15, showered, and prepared for the full day of work. I left my house at 4:00 am and drove to San Jose, then stopped at a downtown bagel shop to complete some correspondence while I waited for the day to begin. At 7:00 I showed up at the hall for a visit with Dr. Angela Haick. After discussing the day’s schedule, she brought me to speak with a 16-year old who expressed a full commitment to gang life. During our conversation, I tried to help the young man see a better way of life, but this first individual wasn’t ready to receive the message. He expressed a willingness to die or serve the rest of his life in a  solitary cell in prison. I left that conversation with an understanding that some people will resist the message initially, but may come around later.

Following the one-one-one meeting, Dr. Haick escorted me to a classroom where I spoke with a group of juveniles who had been charged with serious crimes, including murder, rape, armed robbery. They were all under the age of 18. I walked them through the story of my journey through prison and I explained the Straight-A Guide program to them. They were much more receptive, understanding that they were on their way into the prison system to serve lengthy terms. I’m convinced that they saw the possibility for a better life. They said that they understood improvements would not happen by accident, but through the deliberate choices they made. Following that presentation, I made another one hour presentation in front about 100 students, and then I addressed two more groups of young men who were expected to serve long terms in confinement.

After all of my student presentations, I addressed a group of teachers for 3.5 hours. I walked them through my story, then helped them understand how I use the Straight-A Guide life skills program as a resource to teach at-risk populations. More than 20 teachers and probation officers were in the room. I really enjoyed the opportunity and many expressed enthusiasm about beginning to teach the curriculum. One teacher, Mitzi, will begin teaching today.

Making that contribution to Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall really enlivened me. I’m glad that others are finding value in our Straight-A Guide Life Skills Program.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 121
• Miles run today: 0
• Miles run this week: 35.8
• Miles run this month: 55.8
• 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:

Fathers and Family Logo

Straight-A Guide Staffing Solutions is ready to launch. Our Michael G. Santos Foundation has secured worker’s compensation insurance from the state fund and we’ve entered into an agreement with the Paychex payroll company. The Fathers and Family organization in Stockton has begun teaching the program to a group of formerly incarcerated individuals at their facility. And today I scheduled a lunch meeting with the manager of Golden State Lumber in Stockton. I’ll drive over to explain our program. When he needs entry-level labor, it’s my hope that he will hire at least some of those individuals from this group of formerly incarcerated individuals who want to transition into the labor market as law-abiding, contributing citizens. It’s very exciting for me to work on thees two fronts:

• Creating programs to help those who live in prison to pursue self-directed paths to transform their lives into law-abiding citizens, and
• Helping the formerly incarcerated transition into the labor market.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 120
• Miles run today: 10.2
• Miles run this week: 35.8
• Miles run this month: 55.8
• 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: 164

Journal of today’s activities:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrZEOkmVBJ0&feature=em-upload_owner

Karen Ordaz, a broadcasting major from San Francisco University, prepared the brief video profile as part of her final project. I’m grateful to her for bringing more attention to my work. Her video shows that an individual can rise above past bad decisions and contribute to society in meaningful, measurable ways.

My semester of teaching at San Francisco State University concludes on Thursday. That means I have a busy day ahead reviewing assignments that my 65 students have turned in to the course. It’s been a very exciting semester for me.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 119
• Miles run today: 12.4
• Miles run this week: 25.6
• Miles run this month: 45.6
• 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:

Straight-A Guide Curriculum

On Wednesday of this week I’m scheduled to work at the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. I’m looking forward to the full-day event. Dr. Angela Haick purchased a one-year license of the Straight-A Guide. That license authorizes  teachers who work in Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall to teach our Straight-A Guide Life Skills program. We provided them with a package of our 10 DVD modules, each of which includes 50 separate video lessons. In those lessons, I’m either narrating the way the way that a deliberate, values-based, goal-oriented approach to life changed my life or I’m interviewing another prisoner who talks about his adjustment through prison. Besides the videos, facilitators have access to books I wrote and lesson plans I developed to help them reach their students. On Wednesday I’m spending the entire day inside the Santa Clara Juvenile Hall so that I can teach the facilitators how I would teach the program. I’ll also make presentations to a few different groups of offenders. It’s going to be a busy day and I’m spending the day preparing.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 118
• Miles run today: 13.2
• Miles run this week: 13.2
• Miles run this month: 33.2
• 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:

Frustrated with Accounting

During the 26 years that I served in prison, I didn’t have much need to understand sophisticated accounting software. That isn’t the case any more. I’m now building a business that generates revenues and incurs expenses. It’s important that I master systems to keep track of all my finances. I woke early this morning with hopes of making real progress in organizing a bookkeeping system. Things didn’t work out as I had planned.

Earlier in the year, my wife purchased software known as Quick Books from Intuit, but I never set aside the time to learn the software. I had more pressing matters that required my immediate attention. Today I hoped to learn, but things started going badly from the moment I began, at 3:30 this morning. First of all, when I powered up my iMac, the computer’s internal fan started blowing full force. I spent more than an hour fiddling with different ways to fix it. When I couldn’t figure out, I just started working in spite of the loud noise.

Despite several hours of trying, I couldn’t figure out how to use the Intuit program. The program is likely well designed, but I lack sufficient experience to understand how to set it up. Feeling frustrated, I started to organize revenues and expenditures through an Excel spreadsheet. I didn’t finish that work until the early afternoon. By then it was too late for me to run. I still had considerable amounts of work to complete. I spent the rest of the day working with papers from the students enrolled in my course at SFSU. I wrote a summary of the class that my wife taught last Thursday and updated grades.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 117
• Miles run today: 0
• Miles run this week: 20
• Miles run this month: 20
• 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:

Nelson Mandela: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

I’m in communication with a producer from PBS about filming implementation of The Straight-A Guide inside the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. The producer, Merrill Schwerin, wants to film a series of programs about innovative violence prevention efforts. I spoke about the interest from PBS with Dr. Angela Haick, principal of the Osborne School at Santa Clara County. She recognized the value associated with bringing more awareness to the courageous investment she and her team are making to work with me. Rather than judging me for the bad decisions I made during a reckless transition between my youth and adulthood, she has agreed to mine the value out of messages I am uniquely qualified to deliver to the young offenders. Many of them face decades in prison, and the decisions they make today will have a direct influence on how they emerge.

Next Wednesday, December 11, I’ll spend the day at the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. In the morning I’m scheduled to work with the first group of offenders; in the afternoon I’ll begin training the facilitators who will use our Straight-A Guide life skills program. I’ll leave my house at 4:30 am in order to make sure that I arrive on time in San Jose on time. Training will begin in San Jose at 8:00 am, but I’ll arrive early enough to stop at a coffee shop, organize my materials and thoughts. I’m very enthusiastic about this opportunity to show others how to live as if they’re the change that they want to see in the world. It is a tribute I can give to Nelson Mandela, a man who inspired me through the 26 years that I served in prison.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 116
• Miles run today: 12
• Miles run this week: 20
• Miles run this month: 20
• 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:

Carole teaching at SFSU

Carole joined me to teach the students in my class at San Francisco State University. I considered her perspective crucial because of the way that incarceration influences the family. To preface the lecture, I quoted from the wording in legislation known as The Second Chance Act which stated that nurturing close family ties represented the best way to prepare prisoners for law-abiding, contributing lives upon release. Indeed, our nation confines more than 2.3 million people. Each year more than 10 million people process in and out of county jails. Those massive numbers have an enormous influence on society, because each of those people have family members who remain in society. Mass incarceration contributes to intergenerational cycles of failure, and I wanted the students in my class to understand how imprisonment influences the family. Carole spoke eloquently and responded to questions the students asked during our 2.5 hour presentation.

Prior to the class, I participated in two interviews with students from the broadcasting school at SFSU. I appreciated the opportunity to meet Kayleigh Hendrix and Karen Ordaz. I will publish links to those interviews as soon as I receive them.

For the first time since last Saturday, I broke away from my work to run. I could only run 8 miles because of work responsibilities, but I did run through the beautiful Presidio park and along a road beside the ocean.

Ocean run in San Francicso

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 115
• Miles run today: 8
• Miles run this week: 8
• Miles run this month: 8
• 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: 168

Journal of today’s activities:

State of the Valley Banner

I accepted an invitation to speak at The 2014 State of the Valley Conference on February 7. The event takes place at the Santa Clara Convention Center and organizers expect more than 1,000 people to attend. I’m looking forward to expressing reasons why we as a society should do our part to end the injustices of mass incarceration. Our nation’s deplorable policies that warehouse more than 2.3 million people lead to perpetuating cycles of failure. We need a fundamental change to the system, one that leads more people to work toward earning freedom. I spent several hours today working to develop that program, and I spent several more hours working to prepare for facilitator training that I will lead next Wednesday at the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. I will train a team of facilitators to begin teaching our Straight-A Guide life skills program. Exciting times ahead. The busy schedule necessitated that I forego my run again.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 114
• Miles run today: 0
• Miles run this week: 0
• Miles run this month: 0
• 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: 168