Journal of today’s activities:

Today I served as a guest speaker for the Rotary Club in Mill Valley, a community in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. These types of speaking events allow me to educate prosperous citizens on the reasons we need to reform our nation’s prison system. As I’ve written before, since being released from prison I’ve followed a three-part strategy that includes:

Working to create resources that would teach people how to reject criminal lifestyles.

Working to create opportunities that lead formerly incarcerated individuals into the job market.

Helping more citizens understand why we must work together to eliminate our nation’s commitment to mass incarceration.

When delivering speeches to business audiences, I like to contrast the strategy for building successful business operations with the strategy our approach to justice. Business organizations succeed when they incentivize excellence. Our prison system fails because it concerns itself with the number of calendar pages that turn rather than using innovative strategies that would encourage prisoners to work toward preparing for lives as law-abiding, contributing citizens. If we measured justice through an individual’s demonstrable commitment to reconcile with society and earn freedom, we would see recidivism rates drop precipitously and we would contribute to the building of safer communities.

My friend Justin Paperny and his wife Sandra flew up from Los Angeles today, also. We enjoyed a nice dinner together in a charming Petaluma restaurant.

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 281
• Miles run today: 15.3
• Miles run this week: 40.45
• Miles run this month: 119.13
• 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: 160
• Today’s Weight: 167