New Design StraightfromthePen.com
The photo and all other aspects of the above link is my latest work. Thus far, every link that I checked is working properly. Now that StraightfromthePen.com is hosted elsewhere on a WordPress.org website platform, I have more liberty to design my website as I desire, without having to pay $25 per month to upgrade from the WordPress Premium plan to the Business Plan. Of course, I do have other things I have to pay for to keep StraightfromthePen.com working properly, but I do like the liberty to add plugins or to do what I feel is needed to continue to provide quality content.
Please go to my new site (https://straightfromthepen.com) and click to follow while thinking of it, as the URL on here will soon become history. Not only that, but my current hosting service (FastComet.com) may also become history because I am considering a different hosting environment on Hostinger.com.
At Hostinger.com, where I will have the capability to add more websites to my hosting environment, I hope to improve my success as an affiliate marketer.
Wonderful Women-2023 by Wayne T. Dowdy
Posted Originally at https://straightfromthepen.com
All of the Wonderful Women I pay tribute to each year were somehow missed last year due to operator error. This morning when deciding to post this blog before a spectacular day for me (watching one of my granddaughters play softball), I checked for my Women’s History blog from last year and found it sitting in a draft folder, where it ended up at when I was adding a link to the Spotify podcast that you may listen to by following the embedded post below, or by searching the title on this site. I do apologize ladies, and hope you will remember just how special God made each of you to be the Wonderful Women you are, just the way you are, special in every way on every day. 🙂
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Work In Progress
I posted this on the new StraightfromthePen.com under the title of Screwing Up Again? This far most everything is working as it should. Once I have everything working correctly I will begin the process of trying to have all of my followers to move with me. 🙂
Screwing Up Again?
Yep, I may be screwing up again but it won’t be the first or last time, I promise.
In my quest to learn more about how to setup and keep websites fully operational, I have one thing in common with highly successful people: perseverance and a lot of errors, one error that I will write about in this blog.
For a more positive post about highly successful people, this is a good article from LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/1-thing-all-successful-people-have-common-nathanial-bibby/
For those who have some technical knowledge or for those who want to learn a little bit of what I know, when setting up a website, one of the things a person may choose are Permalinks, which are different formats to use for linking associated content. For instance, just showing the domain name and title, or domain name and numbers, etc. as shown below.
| Permalink structure Plain https://straightfromthepen.com/?p=123 Day and name https://straightfromthepen.com/2023/02/22/sample-post/ Month and name https://straightfromthepen.com/2023/02/sample-post/ Numeric https://straightfromthepen.com/archives/123 Post name https://straightfromthepen.com/sample-post/ Custom Structure Customize permalink structure by selecting available tags https://straightfromthepen.com |
When FastComet moved the content for straightfromthepen.com over from WordPress.com, the person or automated system selected a different format than what the majority of the former site used (now https://straightfromthepen.wordpress.com until it ends in March 2023).
Well, when I took over the website while on home confinement in 2018, I did not know a person should not change the Permalink because it screws up the way search engines index the content of the website for easy retrieval. Then later when I noticed that I was experiencing difficulties finding other blogs I knew existed, I couldn’t figure out why. But now I know what the problem was: ME.
I ventured off into an area I should have investigated more. So, when I started checking out the functioning of this new hosting environment on WordPress.org, not .com, I noticed that most of the internal links did not work and gave me an error message.
Then I changed the permalink again, and thought I chose the best one to eliminate most of the problems I’d have to manual correct when discovered, but I have since changed my mind and think I need to try again.
The moral of the story is the old cliché, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
So, here I go again after WordPress completes creating my backup in case I don’t like the result of my next experiment I can return to the current format as I type.
It won’t take long before I get it figured out but if you experience a 404 Error message, chances are that the blog is in here somewhere, and may be found by searching the title in the search feature at the top of the page.
Whether I am screwing up again or doing something to eliminate a lot of time needed to correct links will be learned soon.
Returning Citizens Interview
Help Needed
I am posting this link to Quora to help Ms. Begum K. find another participant for her interview of returning citizens. I’ve already been through the process with her and it was painless, not extremely sensitive questions or anything to fear, so if you or someone you know has been incarcerated and are now free, she does need a volunteer.
Here is a link to my post on Quora where I shared her request: https://www.quora.com/profile/Wayne-T-Dowdy/Im-sharing-this-post-in-hopes-of-it-reaching-the-right-person-who-will-help-this-young-lady-with-her-project-I-done-th
Check out my other blogs about Quora to see if you may want to become a contributor or just go there to search for answers.
Moving On
[Notice: this is a duplicate of the blog I posted on the new webhosting site that I am still working on to get things running right. This site (straightfromthepen.wordpress.com) will soon end. Read the following and maybe you will understand. On the https://straightfromthepen.com new location, a lot of things aren’t working the same as on this site but I will have things back up to par soon. Please click to follow when the search engines find it. Thank you!]
Technically speaking, I moved on and now have a lot of work to do because of the moving process, the same as if I physically moved from one house to another.
Moved On from WordPress.com because of various reasons. Moved faster than anticipated, too. My plan was to post this blog before I moved the website so that all of my followers would know in advance, but I first moved the domain name to Google Domains and that screwed up the website.
As I type, I am not sure about what came with the migration or what I left behind. Time will tell.
I sought the assistance of the superb hosting service I use, FastComet.com, to migrate straightfromthepen.com from WordPress.com to WordPress.org on my behalf. The Plan I pay for included that service.
Though I ran into technical issues because the process with a less-experienced Technical Support member than what I needed, we did get the job done, but if I had not had working knowledge of the migration processes and experimented with exporting sections of my massive website, I would not have known that the person was incorrect about how I needed to go about getting the massive website moved.
My cost for the hosting package at FastComet.com, where I can have multiple websites, only costs a little more than what I paid for the Premium package on WordPress.com that severely restricted what I could do on that hosting service, unless I wanted to pay $25 per month for the Business Plan. Not me, I moved on to a better place and hope I brought my followers with me. Since this has only been live a few hours, the search engines haven’t found me on this new location.
For those not familiar with the more technical aspects of the functioning of websites, there is a substantial difference in WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
StraightfromthePen.com was hosted by WordPress.com, which means that it provided the server (like a large warehouse with a massive distribution network) that I used to park my Domain on (website address); e.g., straightfromthepen.com.
I’ve been using WordPress.com for several years and am not satisfied with the way it works due to its management. StraightfromthePen.com is my oldest site, and then a few years ago I started WonderfulThingsDone-2 using WordPress.com.
I paid ninety-six dollars per year for the WordPress premium, plus $19 for the domain name I moved over to WordPress. Moving the domain name to WordPress.com ended up costing me more than what I previously paid for wonderfulhingsdone.net (WonderfulThingsDone-2) and straightfromthepen.com.
On WonderfulThingsDone.com, which is a WordPress.org website, I have more control and responsibilities for building and maintaining the site, but I got tired of WordPress.com squeezing me for more money, so … I moved on and won’t go back!
Follow me on Quora.com for answers to many questions about Life Inside and Out.
Happy Valentine’s Day 2023
Happy Valentine’s Day to Everyone!
Re-reading the quote below made me think of those in Turkey and Syria who are suffering from the recent earthquake that devastated their lives and the lives of many others around the world.
My Heart Goes Out to Everyone Suffering.
“Enjoy the special day celebrating life as a living, breathing, human being. No matter how screwed up things may seem, know that there are millions of others who’d love to trade places and to have your problems. That is something I have to remind myself of when disgruntled because the world isn’t working according to Wayne.”
The above quote came from a previous post that rooted in a blog that I sent to my publisher in 2018 to post for me while I was still inside the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons. #Happy Valentine’s Day | STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN.
Well, the world won’t work according to Wayne. That’s okay, because even though things don’t turn out as I prefer on some days, at least I continue to do the right thing and have succeeded at doing many good things throughout my life.
I also feel blessed for having people in my life who love and care for me and who are willing to help me to accomplish some of my goals. And for that I remain grateful and thank my Higher Power, whom I chose to call God, for blessing me with another day to celebrate.
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Amazon.com: W. J. Hagerty Silversmiths Pump Spray Polish : Health & Household
Update 3:45 PM, 02/09/2023: The Press This Experiment Failed to Function that may have occurred due to operator error. The following image and product link was done with the normal Amazon linking process.
W. J. Hagerty Silversmiths Pump Spray Polish
Another Experimental Project! In affiliate marketing, which is a field I continue to explore, I am in pursuit of an effective way to increase passive income as part of my successful reentry program that began August 28, 2018.
This particular experiment on WordPress.com involves an available linking method known as Press This. I find an ad or product I like, and then click the icon for Press This and then the product I chose automatically converts to a blogpost that I can publish immediately, as I originally did with this one, or save it to edit before posting.
In this case, I posted it and then saved it as a draft, which unpublished it. Sorry for the inconvenience to those who automatically receive my latest content.
In the case of this particular product that the price of has almost doubled since I first purchased a bottle of it from Amazon in October 2020, I know it works and will provide evidence at the bottom of this post.
Thanks for participating in my experimental project and successful reentry into society.
Before
In-process after using W. J. Hagerty Silversmiths Pump Spray Polish
After Rinsing with Water and Polishing with Soft Cloth
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Use this link to sign up to buy and or sell on Mercari so that you earn or save money and I earn a small referral fee. Thanks!
It’s easy to buy and sell on Mercari. Get up to $30 when you get started. Use code GUFMTB when you sign up with my link: https://merc.li/Uzfbb6sXb #mercari
Watch “Yikes: WSJ *Just* Exposed Covid Vaccines – Media *FLIPS*” on YouTube
Meet Kevin’s report on the Wall Street Journal exposing the false reporting in relation to COVID-19 vaccines somewhat supports what I claimed in September 2021 in this blog.
Check out Wayne T’s shop on Mercari!
Simple tasks are not always easy to figure out until I stop trying so hard. For instance, when posting YouTube and More last week, I wanted to refer everyone to my particular items for sale on Mercari, but failed to figure out the process I was sure existed.
Too Tired to Think!
Now I know and hope you will check out what I have to sell in the United States by following the link.
Check out my shop: Wayne T: Get up to $30 off* when you use my code GUFMTB to sign up for Mercari. *Terms apply #mercari https://www.mercari.com/u/102924697?sv=0
Life After Release -10
After Prison Experience
On one of my adventures in downtown Atlanta, after my release from serving a 420-month federal prison sentence, I captured the photo of this beautiful bus while walking around the city snapping photos using a smart phone. Only Dumb Phones existed before my 1988 arrest and conviction. But at least you could find a phone booth to pay with coins or by calling collect on such a device, instead of having to pay a lot of money for a smartphone and phone plan.
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Since these posts are read world-wide, I am certain that those in different countries without all of the available technology used in America may wonder how a phone booth looked. Though this photo is of a much older phone booth seen in 1988, this photo does show what would now be a dumb phone, if one could be found somewhere, when compared to a smart phone that I can use the camera of to walk around town taking photos.
Moving on to a different theme, when I first began writing this blog my intent was to post this brief message to refer readers to my page on Quora.com, where I may also earn a commission for those who use my link to sign up for Quora+
Anyways, for a quick blog post with a punch, I am re-sharing a popular answer on Quora that continues to receive a lot of attention because it relates to the technological challenge many returning citizens face upon release. Please be sure to follow the comments in the thread. In particular, what I wrote in response to a comment to help the returning citizen protect himself from scammers:
“Along the lines of security, adding two-factor authentication to an important account is best; especially, if you can use an Authenticator App, such as the one offered by Google or Microsoft. SMS messaging is better than not using any additional measure of security, but that may also be compromised. A lot of SPAM calls may leed to that becoming a security threat.
“Using a credit card versus a debit card is also best, since using the credit card does not require adding your pin number.
“For additional security, in the Manage Account settings on credit or debit cards, add a notification for any transactions done for the lowest amount available so that you will be notified of any transactions posted, and if not you, you can turn off the card immediately and change all associated passwords.” WTD
Thank you!
YouTube and More
Shooting for Stars
Somewhere in the horizon, I see a star that I am shooting for that I know I can reach if I stay focused and do not stop trying to succeed.
Is this the beginning of stardom, StraightfromthePen on YouTube? Maybe, once I learn more about how to use YouTube, and find a house to create a physical YouTube Studio inside of so that I can really focus on what I am doing. At this juncture I am in a learning curve and an experimental stage to learn what works and what does not.
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This is true: It’s easy to buy and sell on Mercari. Get up to $30 when you get started. Use code GUFMTB when you sign up with my link: https://merc.li/Uzfbb6sXb #merca
As stated, I am experimenting with what I can do and how to use YouTube. I don’t really understand what is listed as the YouTube Community, but do think is it what allows followers to receive posted content from subscribers, which reminds me, please Like, Follow, and Subscribe. StraightfromthePen.
Languid Eyes by Jason Glascock
This post is complimentary to allow his voice to escape the confines of prison walls. Only the font style and size has been changed. Content is as submitted. Straight from the Pen does not express any opinion on the subject matter or content or the validity of any statement or claim made.
This post will also appear on Life Inside and Out, a Space on Quora.com, where men and women go for answers to questions. Check out the profile page for Wayne T. Dowdy.
Languid Eyes by Jason Glascock #342498
In my dream I repeat “6 am. 6 am. 6 am.”
I need to wake up at 6 A M!
My eyes snap open to a cream-colored cinder block wall and roll over to a clock reading 6:08 am. Perfect. I tighten my muscles, straining as hard as I can, working through the back, legs, shoulders arms jaw, every muscle gets engaged, released and stretched in this wake-up ritual.
6:08 am. I have a few moments before I actually need to get up, but if I stay here, now relaxed after the stretch, I’d likely fall back to sleep; so, I take three deep breaths and get up. The dayroom hasn’t opened yet, it’s quiet, my cellmate is asleep, meaning I need to be as quiet as possible. Piss in the toilet. Flush. Wash hands. Wash face. Rinse mouth. Dress for work in heavy boots and wait for the door to pop with that steel-on-steel hammer sound. Quiet, like I said.
While I’m sitting in the chair waiting for the door, I decide to do some squats to get the heart pumping. Slow, quiet ones that don’t get me breathing hard. I’m facing the dimly lit dayroom through the small window in the door, looking across at the other cells. The dayroom nightlight flashes into my eyes as I go down, disappears as I stand into the shadow. It’s then that I notice the burning of fatigue that wants to force me back into bed, the tiredness I’m trying to drive away with the squats.
Fresh blood to the brain simulates thoughts. For every hour loss of sleep the IQ can drop by 10 points. Sleep deprivation increases heart disease, exasperates diabetes, increases irritability, promotes violence, and a slew of other maleffects. With all these negatives recognized by medical science, departments of corrections around the country have become aware of how to create conditions that enhance the punishment factor of prison. They’ve doubled down on their efforts to make the environment as uncomfortable as possible. One method is to use sleep deprivation. The choice of uncomfortable mattresses, beds that squeak and rattle when a person rolls over, louder toilets, louder sinks, and more. They’ve removed sound absorbent surfaces such as carpet and wood, opting for steel and concrete. They’ve put in more and brighter nightlights that illuminate the bed as if it were daytime. For instance, I sleep with stadium lights shining in my face or reflecting off the dirty-white wall. If I cover my head the officer will pound on the door to wake me up. Light levels are shown to affect the quality of sleep. The beds are short, so in my case with a 6’4” frame, my feet hang off the bed, resting on square steel tubing much of the night. Then there is the heat. Where temperatures over 75°F are known to cause physical stress and negatively impact sleep, the prison now keeps the livings units at ~85°F year-round, all day, all night, somehow justified as part of their energy saving initiative.
All of that runs through my mind as the squats increase blood flow to the brain. Down… Up… Pump-pump. Down… Up…
The burning in the eyes never goes away; a constant irritation throughout the day. At 4:10pm I enter my cell to wait for dayroom to close. I sit down and grab the book I’ve been working my way through. I look at the page and the text goes wonky. I blink a few times and it clears, coming into focus. A few minutes later I snap awake, catching myself from falling out of the chair. I clear my throat, look to the page and find what I last remember reading. A few minutes later, I’m startled awake again by the sound of the book hitting the floor. I need a nap, but I’m dirty, need a shower, and count is within 20 minutes. There’s no way i can get to the showers. My eyes ache, my muscles ache, l know I’m missing things as I struggle to understand the book. Standing will increase my metabolism, but my feet hurt from working in the bad boots, so I sit back down.
I turn on the TV for some news. As I’m watching all the horrible stuff in the world, I hear this gasping snore and realize I’m sleeping again with my head back like a Zippo lighter.
Coffee. The 4th cup of the day will get me going. And squats. Yes, squats!
It’s count and just standing feels exhausting, but I can’t take a nap because it’s time for work. When the dayroom closes, and I clean. Rushing to change mop water, disinfect phones, tables, chairs, vacuum what carpet remains, sweep and mop. There are ramen noodles on the wall, and someone smashed half a Swiss roll into the rug. Not too bad today. 45 minutes of cleaning and then it’s chow time.
I rush into the servery for a cold hamburger on a bun that’s so dry it crumbles in my hand. I shovel the burger and canned pears into my mouth and leave, still chewing as I stand up; the dayroom needs to be finished before it opens in a half hour.
With work done I shower. The combination of work, coffee and shower leaves me feeling refreshed, the sense of fatigue washed from the brain, but I know it’s still there. Military research has shown there is no performance improvement from caffeine for cognitively demanding tasks and does nothing for the tired muscles. So, I don’t feel the need for a nap and keep going.
The night comes and the 9:15pm count approaches. I’m wearing down. I’ve been up all day, moving around, lifting, twisting, etc. I was at a computer for 4 hours doing a college paper, rereading the book and parsing its contents, formulating my argument and crafting supporting clauses. Exhaustion isn’t creeping up, it’s here and I’m pushing myself. 40 more minutes, I tell my body. I can do 40 more.
Count clears on the unit and then I’m in the dayroom cleaning up for the final time. The work increases my heart rate and blood flow. Fatigue is cleaned from my muscles as I wipe the floor with a wet mop. Thrust right. Thrust left. My back muscles countering the forces and I bounce from foot to foot, bending the knees slightly in almost a dance. I breath deeper, engaging, disengaging, and reengaging muscles, oxygenated blood floods every part my body as I run up and down stairs. The work re-energizes my body leaving only the burning grittiness in my eyes.
My 40 minutes of night cleanup ends and I lock-in for the night. Sleep. I know I need sleep but reinvigorated from the light work I choose to take off my boots and socks, kick the feet up and begin reading the book I’d dropped earlier. The grey matter has plenty of energy now and I’m going to make use of it: BBC World News and a book on data structures in the Python programming language. I make a cup of tepid coffee and look in the mirror. My eyes are red-rimmed and bloodshot, the whites are the tan of straw and itch furiously, heavy-lidded, languid, exhausted. I take a sip of coffee and continue to look at myself for a moment longer, then turn to the book.
I get a good 20 minutes of reading in before an overwhelming sleepiness washes through me. I yawn, continue reading, forcing myself to finish out the chapter. That takes me up to 11pm and I can no longer focus the eyes on the page. The conversation with my cellmate proved that I can’t think either; halfway through sentences I’m losing track of the thought. Now, it’s time for sleep.
Flipping the light off is like turning myself back on. For some reason I get a short burst of wakeup energy from somewhere. Getting into bed, I feel the fatigue of the day fade a little, and I wind up staring at the wall for the next hour, rolling from side to side looking for comfort in an uncomfortable bed with a stadium light blasting my retinas, and the last thing I remember is looking a the clock reading 12:23am before my eyes snap open at 6:03am to start all over.
My experience with sleep deprivation is not unique or unusual. I go for days as I described and then crash. I simply can’t push myself any further and I’ll sleep nearly all day. There are days where my body hurts so bad from lack of sleep I don’t want to do anything. There are nights where I’m overtired and sleep fails to find me until 3am. Next semester I’m going to take 6 credits of courses, and my brain has to perform as well as any college student, and I wonder what it would be like to have full use of what my brain could do, if I could get good sleep.
Please send comments to the following:
Jason R. Glascock #342498
Racine Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 189
Phoenix, MD 21131
Crypto Is Coming
Crypto is Coming Ready or Not.
01/08/2023, Update: The linked article at the end of this blog to Yahoo.com Finance presents strong evidence about the presence and growth of cryptocurrencies around the world. Since I posted this blog a lot of things changed in the world of finance, as I wrote below, with many stocks and cryptocurries dropping considerably in value. The YouTubers I listen to refer to some of the more stable stocks and cryptocurries as being ON SALE.
In my opinion, investing now may still be risky but in reference to Bitcoin and Etherum, I expect that the price will rise within the next few months, but … I am not suggesting to go out and purchase any just because I continue to buy small quantities. (Webull that I promote, allows people to buy dollar amounts or coins.)
Several financial institutions have been investigating how to implement cryptocurrency to plan for what is to come, ready or not (I’m not writing about that aspect of Crypto).
Numerous things have changed since I originally posted this blog last year, including big losses in the crypto and stock markets; however, in recent weeks the markets regained some of its lost territory.
Of significance to this blog, BlackRock, an American multinational management corporation, and the largest asset manager, partnered with Coinbase to make cryptocurrency trading more available to financial institutions. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackrock-teams-coinbase-crypto-market-120000847.html
The Metaverse
The Digital World continues to expand with the Metaverse plans into the future, where trillions of dollars will be made as people venture into a virtual world.
At the end of this blog, I embedded a YouTube video for more information about how the Metaverse will work and affect the world in which we live.
In anticipation of the Metaverse, companies like Facebook/Meta will lead the way into the new world, unless something changes.
Cryptocurrencies will play a large role in the Metaverse as payment plans and numerous other necessary functions for something so vast that most of our minds cannot grasp its magnitude.
FREE STOCKS
At no cost to our valued customers, we receive a small commission for products and services purchased through this website. Paid commissions do not necessarily influence decisions to advertise or promote products or services. Nothing contained in any content on this website is intended to be taken as financial or medical advice.
If interested in buying or selling cryptocurrencies and stocks, please use the link below to Webull. Webull now carries several cryptocurrencies but you must setup a Cryptocurrency account in addition to the regular account. Just click the relevant box for adding crypto trading.
01/08/2023: For the promotion below, the free stocks and requirements change based upon what Webull offers. Thank you for using the provided link.
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Stocks with Josh on YouTube
Stocks with Josh is one of my favorite YouTubers who I believe is legit and does NOT Pump and Dump cryptocurrency or stocks (influence purchases to increase prices and then sell personal shares). He teaches his viewers how to read the charts and seems to truly want to help others.
I am not paid to promote him or the others on YouTube that I sometimes refer to in my blogs.
TOP METAVERSE STOCKS
According to many, the Metaverse is the future. Personally, I have bought a few coins that will find a place inside the Metaverse. Right now I own small quantities of Sandbox (SAND), Decentraland (MANA), and Enjin Coin (ENJ), which should play some role in the Metaverse.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-beats-china-digital-currency-space-race-circle-ceo-212552244.html Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told Congress on Wednesday that trillions in U.S. dollar stablecoin transactions place the United States ahead of China in the digital…
Shane Bradley Shares
Shane, who is a returning citizen like me who wants to make a positive contribution to society, provides a link at the end of this post from his Space on Quora.com that may be of interest to anyone who has served time in prison or who has a loved one or friend who has been on the Inside.
Click his name to find him on Quroa: Shane Bradley.
WHY I CREATED THE SPACE, “THE PRISON AND JAIL FORUM – DECADES.” PLEASE READ BEFORE CHECKING OUT THE ANSWERS ON THE SPACE OR IN MY PROFILE!
First, I want to thank all those that have supported the space with their posts, views, and commentary.
I created the space with the goal to gain credibility to launch much loftier goals I have of preventing juvenile delinquents from making the decisions I made and ending up in prison. Incarceration and recidivism rates are way too high in our country. The devastating consequences affect everybody that live here in the United States. The majority of the people in our country that are in prison will be going home someday. I believe that the way our current criminal justice system is set up that the goal of rehabilitation is not being realized. I would like to think if I asked anybody that lived here in the United States if they want a person that is in prison or jail to come out of prison or jail a better person than they were when they went in that their answer would be yes. That is my goal here. That, and preventing them from being in prison in jail in the first place.
The reason that’s DECADES is in the title of the space is because I only solicit contributors that have at least 10 or more years experience in the criminal justice system. I made this decision because I want the answers on the space to be as accurate as possible and come from real experience. You’ll see some posts are from people that do not have 10 or more years in the system because I allow anybody to request to post something, and after reviewing it, I post it if it is appropriate. I solicit contributors that are not only male and female ex-convicts but also police officers, parole officers, correctional officers, probation officers, defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges, human rights advocates/activates,family of incarcerated, and even sex offenders; in the hope the space will not be biased. I encourage those that meet these prerequisites to apply to be a contributor. I also encourage anybody that would like to collaborate with me, with the goal of preventing juvenile delinquents from ending up in prison, to message me.
Also, far too many people are in prison that are innocent in the first place. You can see evidence of this through the fact that more than 300 people have been exonerated and found to be innocent of the crimes that a jury had found them guilty of, due to the development of DNA technology. That is more than 300 people that the sperm or blood, that was found in heinous rape and murder cases, was found not to be the perpetrator’s blood. Imagine all the people on death row right now that don’t have DNA in their case to prove their innocence, many of which will be executed by our government. The average law abiding citizen believes in our criminal justice system; that it is fair and just, that we don’t put innocent people in prison here in the United States. It isn’t until you have a real encounter with the system that you come to realize that it is broken. The jury pool is pulled from voters. Voters believe in the system or they wouldn’t vote. When the accused sits at the defense table, it is only natural for the person serving on the jury to form an opinion, before any anything is ever said, by their appearance. A large percentage of those jurors are automatically biased because they believe in the system and believe policeman wouldn’t arrest someone for nothing, so there’s already a presumption of guilt even though the accused is supposed to be assumed innocent until proven guilty. Public defenders don’t have adequate resources to protect their clients from injustice due to the high cost. The focus is on plea bargaining when the focus should be on coming to the truth. Prosecutors will fight to keep someone in prison even after they have been shown to be innocent from DNA evidence, contrary to their oath office they swore to uphold.
I watched a 2020 special one time where they took mock jurors and held jury trials. They used the same witnesses, asked the same questions, the same prosecutors, the same defense attorneys, with the only different factor being the person sitting at the defense table. A clean cut individual was often found not guilty, whereas someone who did not have the quintessential look of an innocent person was found guilty. I also watched another 20/20 special where they would have someone, with the stores permission, go into to a store, snatch something and run out the door. Then they would show mugshots to the people in the store that were shopping at the time. People would pick photos in the mugshot lineups and say that that was the person they saw snatch the item that was snatched and it wasn’t even the person. This is literally within 20 minutes of seeing the person that snatched the item. Many of these people said they were certain it was the person when it was not. This also shows how eye witness testimony, which is often taken as fact by jurors is flawed. I hope if you’re reading this, and you serve on a jury, that you will remember this blog and it will lead you to have an unbiased opinion of the accused and will prevent innocent people from going to prison.
I think of all the tens of thousands of juveniles in the system today. I believe if someone just took an interest, an actual sincere one on one interest, in each and every one of them, that a significant percentage of them will never make the choices that will ultimately land them in prison one day.
Incarcerating people has a high social and financial cost to our society and is devastating. Our inner cities are being destroyed. Children are growing up without their fathers. People are leaving prison angry, lost, and worse off than when they went in. Many don’t realize that it is not the prisoner alone that is serving the prison sentence but also their children, their parents, and other loved ones that count each and every day with them, suffering , to the day of their release only to be disappointed to find many of them broken and damaged, instead of rehabilitated. Many, myself included, as well as correctional officers, and others that work in the prison, suffer from PTSD due to the violence. Upon release from prison I thought I was going insane until I found out that everybody that did a lengthy period of time like me suffered from the same symptoms and that it was a normal result and consequence of the environment I lived in. There’s actually a mental health label for it called Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS). PICS, not only affects the person that is suffering from it but all those in society that that person comes into contact with due to the behavior they exhibit is a direct result.
I’m happy to announce that in just three short weeks of the creation of the space there are more than a half of million views and 232 folllowers. Again, thank you all for your support!
Happy New Year 2023
Happy New Year!
And we made it through another one, and for that I am grateful. May 2023 be one of the best new years experienced in our lives. The last few have certainly had their challenges but most of us survived and have lived to fight another day. Go with God Speed into a bright and prosperous future, one day at a time!
For those who didn’t read what I wrote last year, here is the link. Have a wonderful day!
Christmas 2022 by Wayne T. Dowdy
Christmas 2022
Nothing Changed But the Date. The good news is that Covid-19 isn’t devasting life as bad this year as it was last year. I hope each of you are warm and safe.
For those who have followed me for years, please pardon my repeat of this blog from last year with a few modifications. Most everything remains the same, with COVID-19 still creating controversies and disrupting our lives.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all who celebrate the holidays!
Ice and snow settle across parts of the United States as Santa moves in to deliver gifts and toys to all of the good little boys and girls.
Naughty girls and boys get gifts, too, because Santa doesn’t want to be sued for discrimination and lose his reindeers and sled in court.
For me, I haven’t felt the Christmas spirit this year, even when it began to look a lot like Christmas before this day arrived, with Santa packing weapons to defend himself against those who wish to take his goodies. (See photos of Santa’s Anti-Terrorist Sled in linked blog posts.)
Gratitude
What I do feel is gratitude for my health, family and friends, and for having an opportunity to walk the streets or to get in my car to drive wherever I wish, or to go to the refrigerator to get anything I want to eat, at whatever time I chose.
My life changed a lot since I paid my publisher in 2015 to create this blog/website so that I could get my voice outside of the walls and rows of barbwire that held my body but couldn’t dampen my desire to succeed upon release. Today I write as a free man.
For my freedom, I fought many battles against demons and dragons and slayed them all, one at a time, until victory opened the doors on August 28, 2018.
I held my head up as I walked away, with no desire to ever return.
Years later, I sit at a computer writing blogs that I often send in to a select few inside the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons. My hope is to encourage and inspire others to change their life to become better men and to have a more fulfilling life, and so that if the day comes to walk out the doors, that they, too, will be able to live a life that does not include crime or behaviors that will put them back into prison or the graveyard.
Uh, oh, I hear Santa cruising the neighborhood so I need to get in bed and act like I am asleep so that he will stop and leave my presents because I have been really good this year. 🙂
Check out these two older blog posts and you will see Santa’s High-Performance and Heavily Armed sled that will get him put in prison for life if the Feds catch up with him.
Bureau of Prisons and Private Prisons
Great news! This morning I read this article and was happy to see that private prison doors for federal prisoners were closing. BOP finalizes moving inmates from private prisons. My hope is that the BOP will improve and provide each of those inmates an opportunity to prepare themselves for successful reentry into society. Most private prisons were not recognized for providing such programming to prisoners, according to what I had read and heard from others. Please read the following links posted below for more on the subject and for some of my previous content. Thanks!
https://www.bop.gov/resources/news/20221201_ends_use_of_privately_owned_prisons.jsp
When I first read the above article this morning, I posted a brief article on Quora, which went to my accidental page that I created early on in my writing career for Quora. To stray from the topic for this blog, the page on Quora that I link below was “accidental” because when I first posted content to respond to answers, I did not realize that I was doing so on a different page than the one I had intentionally created under my profile: https://www.quora.com/profile/Wayne-T-Dowdy.
I was fresh out of prison and wasn’t up on all the technology after having been inside for over thirty years and having never even used a cellphone or been online without depending on someone else to post blogs for me.
Wayne Dowdy-2 on Quora, BOP finalizes moving inmates from private prisons.
Promotion: Subscribe to Quora+ for answers to questions for any topic. Please use my referral code so that I may earn a small commission. Quora+
Here’s a free subscription code to my Space on Quora where you may read a variety of answers to questions myself and other contributors have answered. Act soon before it expires in one week from the date of this blog, I think: Life Inside and Out.
The blogs I am linking below were ones that I wrote relating to the effects of going to prison and returning citizens, based upon my personal experience. However, because of my security level and history frowned upon by prison administrators (read Essays & More Straight from the Pen for more on that statement), I was too big of a security risk to be placed in a private prison). Though I may not be considered an expert by some, I do have firsthand experience in the field. I do appreciate you reading my blogs on this website or listening to my podcasts on Spotify.
Turkey Day 2022 by Wayne T. Dowdy
Happy Thanksgiving Day to those who celebrate the American holiday! And even to those who don’t celebrate holidays, I hope each of you are filled with gratitude for all you have in life to be thankful for: start with the functioning body parts and the air you breath to see another day.
Turkey Day USA! For me, I celebrate each day because of the life I’ve been blessed with living, which is less than what I want, but is much better than what I had when I posed for that picture inside the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, Georgia in the 80’s.
Healthwise, I was in much better physical condition back then than I am now, of course, but in regards to what really counts, today I am in better overall condition.
The positive aspect from that experience and others I was fortunate to have survived, is that I did walk out the prison doors and lived to fight another day. And decades later, continue to have a life worth writing about, which I do often in hope of inspiring others or to otherwise affect a positive change.
The most success in my writing career has become writing on Quora.com where I have over 1.2 million views on my profile page and Life Inside and Out. Should you decide to subscribe or to check out a free subscription, I am paid a small commission. Visit my profile to learn more: Wayne T. Dowdy or click Here to subscribe to Quora Plus.
Should I focus on writing about the negative, I could write for days and still fail to tell everything that I dealt with throughout the years. A wonderful thing is that I could also write for days about the good things that I have experienced and feel fortunate to still be able to sit before my computer screen and type.
Finding the bright side of life can be a challenge if filled with self-pity because life is not happening the way I feel it should. But when I stop for a moment to remember where I came from, and then accept that things are working the way that the God of my understanding wants it to be, then I can breathe in a be grateful for the moment, knowing that I am blessed to have been around for all these years and to have accomplished the things that I have during the last few years.
My plan for the next few months is to focus on changing several things that I have the power to change in pursuit of accomplishing more than I have since my release from the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons on August 28, 2018. Then maybe next Turkey Day I will write about some spectacular events; however, I am probably going to stop paying for this website and end it for several reasons I may write about in an upcoming post as Revising A Life or Life After Release.
In reflection of 2022, I am grateful for many things, including being given the opportunity to appear on a public television station, which you may watch the YouTube version of by clicking the link in Revising a Life-10 for a Steadfast Journey-Bridging the Gap, with the lovely, Dr. Micshell Milsap, or by clicking the following links where I appeared in Wisdom Episode 10 and another Walking With God. Please check them out and click to like and subscribe to her channel. Thanks!
May your heart be filled with more gratitude this year than most, even though the World affairs have deteriorated. If you pray, remember Ukraine and those who suffer around the world.
Personal Magazines-2
Personal Magazine by Wayne T. Dowdy
October 15, 2022, Update: Since I last updated this I posted an interview on Smashwords.com, which still needs work because the automated links to my previously published books shows two books not available in their Premium Catalog for expanded distribution because I use links to Amazon.com (Rivals). Under Pressure and Under Pressure-Motivational Version may be purchased on Smashwords, but all of my other books are distributed to numerous eBook retailers.
The reason all of my books do not appear under the Interview is because I am listed as the publisher of all of my other books, which is true, but I am also the author. Just a matter of technical issues. If you want to read my interview, please click HERE.
March 1, 2021, Update: My publisher posted this blog for me while I was held inside the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons. Before writing it, I learned that the technical aspects (content) is what determines whether a publication is a magazine versus a book.
My concept of a book was based on physical characteristics (e.g., a compilation of text and or photos bound in a spine and cover, rather than text and or pictures on pages stapled together in the center).
I learned what constituted a magazine after Confrontation Magazine, the Literary Journal of Long Island University, published a submission of mine that the editor chose to publish as a Letter to the Editor, titled, Prison and Khordorkovsky.
The content, not the binding and cover or other physical characteristics, makes a publication a magazine. By combining genres, I unintentionally made Essays and More Straight from the Pen a magazine instead of a book. 🙂
Here is a modified version of what was originally posted before my release.
I own a magazine, two actually. Imagine that, having a personal magazine for the world to read. When I created ESSAYS AND MORE STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN with Midnight Express Books, I did not think about it as a magazine, but that’s what it is, regardless of what I thought. All it takes to have a magazine these days is a website to post them on, or some system to publish it by putting it in print for everyone to read.
What was I thinking? Well, I was thinking that I had twelve superb essays to share with all who wanted to read about a variety of topics that involved the infamous “Me.”
ESSAYS ABOUT WHAT? Essays about survival against the odds; essays about love and pain; essays about the cost of crime on human lives from a personal perspective; essays to inspire, to shed light on life from a different perspective; essays that show life inside the American criminal justice system; essays that show the price I paid to become a better man; essays, poetry, and a short story that offers something unique to the reader.
FREE ESSAYS: I periodically make some essays available for free, one of which is “No Sympathy,” at this time. Check my authors page for an additional ones. Make a request and I will offer a free coupon code (https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/WayneMrDowdy).
For your taking time to read this blog, I offer another free essay for your reading pleasure. Use Smashwords Coupon Code MQ86S to download a free copy of “An Airport Ate the Neighborhood” from my author’s page (click on the link listed in the above paragraph). Enter the coupon code near the end of the process as if you are purchasing the essay. The free offer is only available at Smashwords.com and valid until December 31, 2022.
You may also purchase the essay for $0.99 at several online outlets. For downloading on a personal computer, use the html format option.
WHAT’S THE “MORE” IN THE TITLE? I wanted to give my readers more for their money, so I added three select poems and one short story, which is what converted my essay collection into a magazine by definition. My personal magazine. I hope you start reading it today by downloading a copy from your favorite eBook retailer. If not that, at least order yourself a paperback from Amazon.com or from your favorite bookstore, which I will really appreciate.
A Federal Bureau of Prisons case manager read Essays and More Straight from the Pen and commented that it contained a lot of wisdom, has parts to make you laugh, and others that were touching; a well-written book and good read. He said he read in a couple of days. For that to come from a prison staff member, it’s a great compliment and one that made me proud of what me and Midnight Express Books put together.
Treat yourself by reading it today and then share it with others.* Many people have told me they found something to identify with in it and that it helped improve their outlook upon life.
I did a similar experiment with my first novel, UNDER PRESSURE by Mr. D. Things haven’t worked out as I planned. When I created UNDER PRESSURE-MOTIVATIONAL VERSION by Mr. D., I accidentally turned it into a magazine, too. For more on that one, if you haven’t done so already, please read my other blog post, “PUBLISHING & UNKNOWN INNOCENCE.” So, I own two magazines. 🙂
How to erase all of the data Google knows about you
Once again I am experimenting with processes to use on my websites to benefit my followers and readers. In particular, I am posting an article that shows others how to delete all of the information on you used by Google to track you for various reasons.
This experiment is with using, Press This, a WordPress feature used to post a link to an online article directly into a blog post. And, yes, if I am blessed with you taking the time to read this post, I am including you as one of my readers and hopefully a follower (please sign up below if you are not a follower).
The linked article on “How to Erase All of the Data Google Know About You” may be of interest, even if your participation on this website is related to issues surrounding mass incarceration in America, affiliate marketing, social issues, or any other topics I write about on StraightfromthePen.com. For instance, such as the blog I wrote to help others to be more informed about some of the scams and threats related to online activities: The Phish Who Got Away | STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN
Thanks for reading and for following me on StraightfromthePen.com. Here is the article you may find useful if concerned about the data mining used by Google. If you prefer not to use this link, you can find the article by Digital Goddess, Kim Komando from USA TODAY who wrote the article by searching KimKomando.com.
“You’d be shocked to find out just how much data Google has on you. Thankfully you can delete almost everything you’ve shared with Google.”
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Electronic Chain-2019
Update APRIL 10, 2021: Many things in my life have changed since I wrote Electronic Chain over two years ago after I finally completed a 420-month federal prison sentence. That day was a long-time coming and one I often wondered if I would live long enough to see as a free man.
When I look at the photo that I took of Dismas Charities in Atlanta, Georgia, on the day of my release, I am reminded of the times I had to have permission to walk out the doors and through the gates to walk down the street to catch a bus to go to an approved location, such as the Georgia Department of Labor to continue my fruitless job search, or to Grady Memorial Hospital or to the Mercy Care Clinic for health-related issues.
Free at Last, Kind of
The first time I got a pass to leave the premises, when I was kind of free at last for a few hours, I remember standing at the end of the street at a bus stop, feeling like a dog must feel when freed from its leash.
It had been thirty calendar years since I had walked in the free society without a chain strapped around my waist, handcuffs on my wrists, and leg shackles biting at my ankles as I tried to act normal while wearing such unfashionable jewelry.
Returning to Dismas Charities was not always as bad as what one may think for a man who spent decades of his life bound by chains, who lived behind concrete and steel walls, with the outside perimeters decorated with row-upon-row of razor wire designed to slice the flesh of anyone crossing over it into a different world.
Sometimes it was a relief to walk back inside the gates of the halfway house, after walking up a long hill in one of the less-favorable neighborhoods of Atlanta, where the prostitutes and dope fiends hustled the streets to meet their needs for survival in a cruel world.
For me, returning to the boundaries of Dismas Charities was a relief because I was back into a more familiar atmosphere, where I didn’t feel like an alien or caveman.
Behind the gates was where I was supposed to be until told I could leave and not return; the day I longed for but somewhat feared because of the risk of returning to a jail cell if I failed to meet the expectations of the United States Department of Justice or any of the many local law enforcement agencies in Metro Atlanta.
I thank God daily for me not having to live in that environment anymore, where my activities were governed and regulated by program statements and policies, often interpreted by people who lacked the required intelligence to grasp the concept behind broadly-written words.
However, to be fair, I need to clarify that not everyone in authoritative positions lacked intelligence or abused their authority because the policies gave them the power to do so.
Some were good men and women who did all they could to help me and others to walk out of the prison doors and to become better individuals.
I am grateful for several staff members who fell into the latter category, as well as for the ones I have dealt with since my release, none of whom have shown any ill-intent toward me and have helped me to successfully reintegrate into society.
LIFE ON THE OUTSIDE
Today, I live and eat well and don’t have to do a lot of walking to go to and from desired locations. That is because I own and drive a vehicle; work 40-hour per week, have automotive, life, medical, dental, and vision insurance. The walking I do is by choice, or necessity, not because it is my only option.
I am ending this update with a few photos to show that life is good and with the hope of inspiring others who have been released from prison to never give up and to work towards finding a better way to live out here, even when times get rough.
It took me eleven months to find a job, more so because of my age than criminal history, but I never gave up or thought about reverting to my old behaviors.
The God of my understanding has bigger plans for me than being in a cage, and for that I am grateful.
The Night Before I Lose An Electronic Chain
Anticipation may be one word to describe what a person experiences in knowing he or she awaits the finish line of a challenge that took thirty-years, six-months, and twenty-two-days, to reach.
MY DAY: March 8, 2019: On the day of my total release from the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons, my weary mind recalled sleeping from about 1:00 am until 3:30 am.
My eyes popped open and refused to close, so I succumbed to the pressure and got out of bed to begin a day I had awaited; a day I didn’t think I’d ever see after my arrest on August 18, 1988.
Miracles Do Happen! I believed I would die in prison or be killed escaping. I was wrong!
When I went to sleep on March 8, 2019, I slept longer than I had in years, maybe because of having completed my 420-month federal prison sentence. Being relieved of the pressure from carrying a heavy burden for three decades of my life, lightened my load.
Not having to worry about getting up to charge an ankle monitor helped me sleep better, too, I’m sure.
(I viewed the ankle monitor strapped to my ankle as an electronic-chain, which I had to wear to go on home confinement. If I had not agreed, I would have had to stay at the halfway house (Residential Reentry Center.))
That morning I signed some papers and a staff member at Dismas Charities removed the electronic-chain. From that point on I was technically freed from the custody of the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons, an agency I spoke out against for years while under its control.
Leaving Dismas Charities, a loved one invited me to a celebratory meal at a Waffle House. I accepted! He treated me to steak and eggs, with hashbrowns smothered and covered.
And high-dollar coffee, in comparison to the cost of a cup in 1988!
I was shocked to learn a cup of coffee cost $1.50 at a Waffle House!
[Breaking News: On March 13th, I drank coffee at a Waffle House in downtown Atlanta and paid $2.00 for a cup. My brother-in-law said the previous cup was $1.90, not $1.50] Much cheaper than StarBucks!
Then the next day, I ate even better. I’ve been treated so well by family and friends since my release, it’s hard to say when I ate the best. I have eaten a lot of tasty food, at a lot of high-dollar-restaurants, none of which served better food than what I ate during family gatherings on Thanksgiving and Christmas Days.
March 9, 2019: Food-wise, I liked the food at a couple other restaurants better than what I ate at an Outback Steakhouse, where we celebrated my return to the family, but I enjoyed the experience tremendously.
That is because of the time I spent with most of my loved ones, and without me having an electronic-chain strapped around my ankle.
Having an electronic-chain strapped around my ankle, embarrassed me when it showed while I was out in the public; however, I preferred dealing with embarrassment over the alternative (sitting at the halfway house or in prison).
Family Time Made Everything Wonderful!
From FaceBook: I am blessed to have a family who still loves me. This Yummy, Great American Cookie was the final part of my special night out at an Outback Steakhouse to celebrate having closed one chapter of my life and for beginning a new one.
The evening meant a lot because it was the first family outing I experienced in decades without an electronic-chain strapped to my ankle.
There were other loved ones who couldn’t attend for various reasons, but I do want to say that the Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings were really special to me because I got to meet relatives I had never met and to just really experience the gratitude of love.
God blessed me with a wonderful family and I love ’em all!
Roaming the Streets Without an Electronic-Chain
UNLEASHED: My day in the Big City without an electronic-chain
Leaving the Waffle House, my brother-in-law carried me downtown to the Grady Memorial Hospital for medical appointments.
“Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Ga. is rated high performing in 1 adult procedure or condition. It is a general medical and surgical facility. It is a teaching hospital.
“Rankings and Recognitions
“To help patients decide where to receive care, U.S. News generates hospital rankings by evaluating data on nearly 5,000 hospitals in 16 adult specialties, 9 adult procedures and conditions and 10 pediatric specialties. To be nationally ranked in a specialty, a hospital must excel in caring for the sickest, most medically complex patients. …”
https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/ga/grady-memorial-hospital-6380130
Grady Memorial Hospital held the Top-Spot for U.S. Trauma Centers for decades, and still does, I believe.
The above I wrote because of how impressed I’ve been with the level of health care provided at Grady, where I had to go upon release from prison because I had health issues and did not have insurance and could not afford it. I still can’t afford insurance because I’m unemployed!
[My experience at Grady does not coincide with other patient ratings. August 7, 2019: Since writing this post in March 2019, my opinion of Grady has lessened but I still give it props for the greater good the hospital serves to the Atlanta area.]
Though my brother-in-law was willing to wait, I did not want to hold him up as I went about my scheduled affairs. Leaving Grady I needed to check in with the United States Probation Office.
U.S. Probation Office Inside this Massive Structure
I left Grady Memorial and walked to the Richard B. Russell Federal Building. Many things changed in society since 1988.
Going into the building I ran into a metal detector, with several government officials guarding its entrance. I had to surrender my possessions, including my SmartWatch, SmartPhone, and backpack filled with a variety of items I knew I needed to venture into the Big City.
Once I cleared the metal detector, all of my possessions were returned, except for the cellphone, which I had to leave with the staff members guarding the entrance. I was given a numbered-token to hold in exchange of my phone until I was ready to leave.
As it turned out, I wasted my time going into the Richard B. Russell Federal Building, because I learned I had to report to another office on Monday, in another town.
While in Atlanta, I gave a urinalysis, but still had to give another one at the correct United States Probation Office. It’s all good, though, I’ve been clean and sober since April 5, 1995.
At the Atlanta office, I did get to speak with the most beautiful probation officer I’d ever seen.
Iplanned to attend a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous that night, but I was so tired by the time I got home at 6:30 pm, after having run around the city and walking over five-miles, that I didn’t even do my typical social media activities.
Maybe all the walking lead to me sleeping as well as I did, without the burden of that electronic-chain and all of the associated factors strapped around my mind and my ankle.
Revising a Life-10
Life continues to amaze me as I move along the road to Happy Destiny, wherever that road may lead. Thus far, my life continues to be different from what I imagined before my release.
More on Amazing Life: For instance, when released on August 28, 2018, no one would have probably imagined that I would be appearing on an Atlanta television show without a Wanted Poster in the background. 🙂
Leaving my old life behind as I walked out the prison gates, I had never even used a cellphone. This blog was started by my publisher/friend, who I paid to help me self-publish my books and to start this blog to promote my books, as well as to let my voice be heard beyond prison walls.
Should anyone be wondering, Nope, I was not featured on the cover of the magazine shown above: it was a scam artist’s work who tried to convince me that I had won the Facebook Lottery. I didn’t go for it but did confiscate the photo. 🙂
August 3, 2022, Update: I appeared on a television show in Atlanta and shared part of my story in hope of helping others, not once, but twice. You may view the first filming on YouTube at A Steadfast Journey (Bridging the Gap), which was televised Monday, July 25, 2022, between 11:00-11:30 PM, Eastern Standard Time.
WATC 57.1 may also be viewed on Facebook.
Steadfast Journey, WATC 57.1 Stream
New Life: Well, I knew my new life did not include any planned activities that involved the risk of my mugshot landing on a Wanted Poster. That is because I changed my life in 1995 by making a decision to turn my will and life over to the care of the God of my understanding, as suggested in Step Three of Twelve Step programs, which I did not belong to during the early days of my new life.
After the first filming, someone at the television station asked Dr. Milsap, “Where did you find that guy?” and expressed an interest on me possibly appearing on the regular show:
Atlanta’s 57, WATC-TV
Ironically, the name of the city and year correlates to my birthdate: In 1957 I was born in Atlanta, Georgia. And then as I was preparing to post this blog, I noticed that it was draft #57. 🙂
WAYNE T. DOWDY AND QUORA.COM
I have written several blogs here about Quora and my content where I now have over One Million Views. One blog is Quora Monetarized and Cryptocurrency, where I include links to my space, Life Inside and Out. If interested in learning more by reading answers or asking questions to a variety of questions, please follow Life Inside and Out on Quora.com. Click Here. Feel free to ask any questions and to voice opinions in comments to all content.
Closing: Though I have a lot more to write about, I have a forty-hour job I must report to today so I can pay my bills. My popularity has not earned me very much, but it does stroke my ego and makes me proud to be in a position to report positive aspects about my Life After Release, which I write to show others that we can change our lives if willing to put in the work.
For me, I just continue to do the next right thing and to Let Go and Let God, then I know it will be okay if I stay focused on traveling along the road to Happy Destiny.
Happy Independence Day-2022
Happy Independence Day to those in America who celebrate its independence.
Two years ago, I wrote about my personal Independence Day worthy of celebration. Click Here to read or search Independence Day for that post or others in relation to this special day, whether celebrating America’s Independence or your Independence from something meaningful.
Coming Soon
My plan for the last couple months has been to post another Life After Release. The last one I posted was in December 2021. Life After Release-10 is Coming Soon.
Since Life After Release-9, a lot of things have changed in my life on many levels. More will be revealed, including the story behind the photo I posted above, which was one of those God Shots I’ve experienced throughout the years.
Right now, though, I have to get ready to go to my Forty Hour job at Goodwill of North Georgia.
For those with an interest in prison life and the issues surrounding prisons and the lives of those trapped within their walls, bars and fences, please check out Life Inside and Out (quora.com). Thanks!
Oh, I forgot to mention one of the most important things, please check out my podcasts and let me know what you think. Click Here to go to my page for the podcasts. I do appreciate you!
Podcast Experiment
Once again, I am experimenting with technology and having fun doing so with a live audience. Speaking of the such, I will soon post a link to my first appearance on a television show, Atlanta’s 57, WATC 57.1 Stream. My mugshot has been televised before, as in If You See This Man Call …
This time I am sharing my story in a positive light. Anyways, please check out some of the podcasts I have added to many of my former blogposts and post a brief comment or click to Like. Thanks!
Gratitude 2021
An Attitude of Gratitude makes a difference in my perception of life in general. Sometimes I must slow down to look at what matters most to make my attitude change from a negative perspective to the positive.
Having 19-million views on Google Maps does make me feel grateful on one level, but it’s only another number added to my accomplishments as a Returning Citizen.
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Writing about gratitude when not feeling so grateful about life as it is while writing isn’t easy, but I will overcome the negative feelings by writing about the positive aspects of my life.
I’m not filled with self-pity or dealing with depression. Things just haven’t been going the way for me the way I had hoped.
Because I am dealing with a personal relationship not turning out the way I had hoped. I’m just not in my typical cheerful mode, as I often am when walking around the store where I work trying to spread cheer by speaking with others. Or when walking in a park enjoying nature, feeling a cool breeze that heightens the senses, or experiencing the joy of seeing something beautiful.
Self-Pity: One saying for feeling self-pity in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is, “Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me, Pour Me Another Drink.”
The antidote for self-pity is to make a list of all you are grateful for in your life.
Writing and Typing: Right now, I am sitting in front of a computer working on a blog to help brighten the day of those whom I cannot see or do not know. If this makes you smile, I am grateful for taking the time to do what I am doing.
Thinking about someone smiling while reading this blog gave me a burst of joy, and gratitude for the God-given ability to use words to help others to experience feelings.
Grateful for What Counts: I am grateful for my good health, for having eyes to see, feet to get me to where I want to go, and even if my two feet hurt, for having two feet to hurt. I’m grateful for the ability to love and for being loved.
Family & Friends: More so than anything else, I am grateful for still having friends and family who love and care for me and who I know would be there for me in times of need.
Tomorrow I will be celebrating with loved ones as we share love and hugs, and then while we eat good food. 🙂
In closing, I am grateful for not being in the same position that I was in back in 2016 when I wrote Gratitude and More from inside the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons. I am grateful for being a free man, a good man.
Now that is something to smile about, to be proud of, and grateful for being in a position to sit in front of this computer doing what I do best: write.
Happy Holidays!
COVID-19 and Forced Vaccination
Disclaimer: nothing in this blog is to be taken or perceived as medical or personal advice. The content is simply the opinion of the author who is not a doctor or expert in the medical field.
COVID-19 CLAIMS
No dispute on whether the COVID-19 virus kills people. It does. However, every illness is not due to COVID-19 but many deaths attributed to COVID-19 are false information.
The man in the embedded video at the end of this post states a lot of what I have heard from others who work in the medical field about the fraudulent COVID-19 claims, how most illnesses are quickly changed from the original complaint to COVID-19.
Shortly after receiving the first or second Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, a total of 32 people died at the facility where this man works.
In my unprofessional opinion, whether a person contracts COVID-19 depends more on genes (DNA) and the person’s immune system. The basis behind my conclusion revolves around three of my family members households and COVID-19.
In group one, the wife worked in a nursing home where several patients died from COVID-19. She contracted COVID-19. She slept in the same bed with her husband, who would be considered High-risk. He did not contract COVID-19.
In group two, a high-risk elderly person lived in the same house and was cared for by relatives and a nurse who came in periodically. The younger, less-risk-caretakers/relatives contracted COVID-19. The High-risk elderly family member did not contract COVID-19.
In Group Three, two children contracted COVID-19. One of the parents fell into the High-risk category. Neither he nor his wife contracted COVID-19.
What are the variables in each of the above examples? Different DNA and gene pools.
09/13/2021, Update: after posting this blog someone on Facebook sent a link that supports my claim about DNA and COVID-19. The idea that COVID-19, AIDS, and the EBOLA viruses were created in a lab as biological warfare is something I have always believed; especially, with AIDS, where in one study, most Rhesus monkeys became infected after the first injection of HIV, whereas some took up to twenty injections of the same strain before testing positive. What was the variable: DNA.
Watch this video:
Fortunately, none of my relatives died from COVID-19. I am sorry to report that several people infected with the same strain of COVID-19 did die, whether from a COVID-19 case or underlying health condition reported as COVID-19.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN and COVID-19 Vaccination Mandate for Employers to Force on Employees.
Now President Joe Biden effectively created mass controversies in a recent plan to force businesses with over 100-employees to require that the employees receive a COVID-19 vaccination or to be tested weekly. Companies will be fined for non-compliance. Click Here to read Joe Biden Faces an Avalanche of Vaccine Mandate Lawsuits.
In my unprofessional opinion, the flaw in his plan is evident in that even people who have been vaccinated are still contracting COVID-19. However, the vaccine may reduce the risk of death from COVID-19. BUT what about those who die after taking the vaccine?
I wonder if President Joe Biden owns stock in the companies producing the vaccines or ingredients needed to produce COVID-19 vaccines? Whether he does or does not is irrelevant to me because I am going to be one of the rebels who refuses to be vaccinated or to be tested each week.
That is because I believe that if it is meant or not meant for me to become infected with COVID-19 is what will happen, regardless of what I do or do not do. That’s just my spiritual belief. God is in control of my life, period! Otherwise, I would not have survived my youth. I should have died decades ago. Read Essays & More Straight from the Pen by Wayne T. Dowdy and you will probably agree.
CONCLUSION
In the meantime, no vaccine for me but that is not to say that others should do as I chose. If a person will feel safer taking the jab, then that is what he or she should do. I jabbed myself enough and refuse to be a Guinea Pig.
A publication I used to read (Best Pills Worst Pills) suggested waiting for a new drug to be on the market five years before taking. I recall that it was because it may take that long for the severe side-effects to manifest, and am applying the same standard to vaccines. Either way, though, I do hope that vaccines are effective and prevent more people from dying.
Master Number 33 by Wayne T. Dowdy
Master Number 33
On the night that I received the medallion displayed above, four members of a twelve-step program sat at a table pulling cards from a deck. I overheard the only male in the small group say, “I don’t want one.”
He didn’t want to pull a card, so I volunteered and exchanged seats, due in part to three lovely ladies sitting at the table where he sat. That is where Master Number 33 comes into play for the topic of this blog, though I didn’t learn that I was a Master Number 33 for several weeks because I recall that I pulled a card containing four images.
The interpreter, Stephanie, then asked me several personal questions before our affair was interrupted for those of us celebrating milestones in recovery to be honored with the presentation of sobriety tokens.
Stephanie made some positive comments about her findings before we had to rearrange our seats for the spectacular events to proceed for which we were gathered.
Months later I asked her what all of that meant that she had said after reading the card, etc. She then sent me the link below on the Master Number 33 and suggested I read it. When I did, I was amazed at the accuracy proven by my history and observation of Number “3” and events in my life, which I will not go into for the purpose of this blog.
In reference to Master Number 33, one example is that in recovery and in life in general, my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God, uses me to help others to find a new way of life. Something I do out of love for others and love doing to compensate for the many dirty deeds I did before my conversion (changing my lifestyle in 1995 and retiring from the Thug Life I lived for several years because I didn’t know how to change what began as a child). Here is a quote from Ganehaspeaks.com to support that fact:
“Master Number 33 Powers and Characteristics
“They seem to possess an unlimited reservoir of spiritual energy which they use extremely liberally to help those around them. The root of 33 that is 6 is a number that is naturally associated with family, love, home, and responsibility.”
https://www.ganeshaspeaks.com/numerology/master-numbers/number-33/
I am responsible! I suit up and show up when committed to helping another person find a new way of life.
Matter of Perception: Thirty-three years ago on August 18, 1988, an event occurred that some may view as good while others may see it as bad, meaning not-so-good.
Personally, since I am the Star of the Show, I see it as necessary and a combination of both, good and bad, because if the event had not occurred, I would not be alive to write this blog or to enjoy the life I am blessed with living today. To understand that statement a person needs to read my book to grasp a full understanding.
Though far from the life I imagined and believe is on the horizon, I am doing well in that I have the main essentials for survival (good health, food, shelter), and am still alive and free as a spirit having a human experience.
THE EVENT: Kentucky State Patrol pulled me and an accomplice over in Campbell County, Tennessee, which ultimately led to my arrest and conviction on several federal charges and a 420-month federal prison sentence, all of which I wrote about in Essays & More Straight from the Pen. (Buy paperback for $8.95 or eBook for $0.99)
Essays and More Straight from the Pen shows the power of change. The well-written essays take the reader deep inside the life of their author who overcame circumstances and obstacles that kept him chained to a life of drugs and crime. The stories inspire and motivate people to not give up or lose hope, and to fight for a new life.
August 28, 2018: I walked out of the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons in Edgefield, South Carolina. That was the first time in 30-years and 10-days that I walked outside the confines of a prison without handcuffs, chains, and shackles.
In Electronic Chain on this site, I wrote about some of my experiences after completion of my federal prison sentence on March 8, 2019. And then in another blog, Prison and Personality Changes by Wayne T. Dowdy, I included an update to my life after release and a recent post on Quora.com, all of which I write in hope of using my experiences to help others.
My goal is to convert my negative experiences into positive ones by sharing my experience, strength, and hope with others, as is common in Twelve Step programs.
Conclusion
In conclusion of this blog, I will end with an excerpt from the Conclusion in Numerology: Master Number 33 that if someone elects to buy and read Essays & More Straight from the Pen, will probably see a substantial contrast in the man I am today versus the person I had become based upon life experiences, and thus see the Power of Change I want others to see in my life:
“People affiliated with this number will be loving, sympathetic, emotional, kind-hearted and zealous in their essence.”
Could Be Me
Provide Treatment for Addiction Problems to Reduce Recidivism
July 11, 2021: I am reposting this blog because of its importance to me and millions of others. Had I not changed my life in 1995 while inside the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons, I would never have lived long enough to walk out of the prison doors. Today I have a life worth living because I dealt with the interpersonal issues I had that kept me caught up in my addition and in prison for the majority of my life.
I am evidence that miracles happen.
In December 2002, a study author stated that eighty-five percent of prisoners had addiction problems, and of those, half had an underlying mental condition (42.5%). To me, that study shows a critical need for providing resources to help treat addiction problems, if we plan to reduce recidivism.
Thirty Percent of Men and Women with Addiction Problems Have Underlying Mental Health Conditions.
Combine Treatment for Both Issues to Change Lives.
I am one who falls within the study findings and attest to the accuracy of the study finding; however, I don’t live that way anymore. The August 2008 publication from Readers Write in The Sun magazine, helps explain why that remains true: https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/392/up-all-night
(For more on the study and its findings, read “No Sympathy” on this site)
Note: I am now free and living my life as a productive member of society and reside in metro Atlanta, Georgia.
The Sun magazine Readers Write topic: Up All Night
I have spent many nights wide awake on methamphetamine, cocaine, LSD, and Ecstasy. In the late seventies, I used to go on PCP benders and lose days of my life to blackouts. As a result, I cannot honestly say what I have or have not done.
I am currently serving a thirty-five-year federal sentence for armed bank robbery and associated charges. For the first seven years of my sentence, I did cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, or some combination of the above as often as I could. When the guards came around to count us after lights out, I’d fake being asleep to avoid getting a urinalysis the next day. In the morning I’d begin the search for another fix.
Then I began seeing a prison psychologist. I wanted to stop shooting drugs, but I had failed at it so many times that I didn’t have much hope. The psychologist arranged sessions with a drug-treatment specialist. After about a month, she decided that the core of my addiction was shame, and she gave me a homework assignment: to write about the most shameful event in my life.
I decided to give her more than she had bargained for. I wrote from 5:30 P.M. until 5:30 A.M., committing to paper all the sick secrets that I had vowed to take with me to my grave. I filled sixteen yellow, legal-size pages.
The following day the drug counselor read what I’d written and predicted that I would never use again. For thirteen years her prediction has held true. But I keep in mind that my reprieve from my addiction is contingent on my spiritual condition from day to day. To stay healthy I have to attend twelve-step meetings and continue to write about what’s going on in my life. Staying up all night writing, instead of doing drugs, has helped me to reach beyond the walls and razor wire and into the lives of others.
Wayne T. Dowdy
BUTTERFLIES and CHANGE by Wayne T. Dowdy
I found the inscription on the medallion shown above in the photo to be inspiring and true: “If nothing ever changed there would be no butterflies.”
Several years ago, I was published in an international magazine and was quoted as having said something like, “I was antisocial until AA turned me into a social butterfly.”
Butterflies are free and so am I!
On April 5, 2021, a doctor called me on the phone and thanked me for a personal magazine/book that I gave her: Essays & More Straight from the Pen. She said it changed her life by allowing her to understand more about how one’s experiences in life shape the person they become (or something along those lines. I’m paraphrasing from memory).
For such a compliment to come from someone as prestigious and intelligent (and pretty) as her, I was moved deeply and more thankful for her call than she probably realized. Knowing how busy she is in her profession and that she was so thoughtful that she took the time from her busy schedule to call me, meant a lot.
She began the conversation by saying she hoped that it was a good time for her to call, and by acknowledging that she knew the day was a special one for me (the last day I used mind-altering substances in 1995). Then she thanked me for my very well written book and for writing openly and honestly about the sensitive content from my past.
When I promised to give her a copy, I asked that she please remember me as the person she met versus the person she reads about inside the book.
I felt honored that she had remembered me as the man she met and was so grateful that she called to thank me for the truthful content inside the pages, a lot of which I am not proud of having done decades before.
People can change the same as butterflies do when metamorphosing from a caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly. Read about the man who did in Essays & More Straight from the Pen.
Essays & More Straight from the Pen by Wayne T. Dowdy
Essays and More Straight from the Pen shows the power of change, gives hope to readers wanting a different life.
The well-written essays take readers deep inside the life of the author who overcame circumstances and obstacles that kept him chained to a life of drugs and crime.
The stories inspire and motivate people to not give up or lose hope, and to fight for a new life.
Life After Release-5
My Life After Release continues to be an adventure as I continue to live and learn, after my return to society as if being a caveman who walked out of a cave into a bright new world filled with gadgets and devices that were not available in 1988 when thrown into a cage to protect society.
Life is wonderful, full of surprises and a host of challenging situations but only as challenging as I chose to perceive them to be.
The truth is that life just happens, and I make a decision on how to view any event or chain of events. I chose to see challenging situations as an opportunity to learn.
No day passes without me having learned something beneficial.
Though living my life in a respectful manner and focusing on doing the right thing, I still must be on guard for the character defects that ruled my life many years ago; especially, the pride when driven by Mr. EGO, the one who feels the need to defend that scared little boy who grew up fighting to keep the bullies and predators at bay.
If left unchecked, Mr. EGO would have me right back in jail or dead. Fortunately, I have learned when to walk away from a situation to avoid a catastrophe or unpleasant outcome in a dispute. Humility. Not humiliation.
Cheap Smartwatch
In Life After Release-3 I wrote about a Smartwatch with a phishing link, designed to steal personal data. That is a screenshot of the culprit shown above.
When I bought the watch for $14.99 on Woot, an Amazon company, I thought I had gotten a great deal because it was advertised as normally listing for $99.99.
A month later, I find the following when researching to write this blog about learning to deal with life in this new era, and deciding to use the thieving smartwatch as an example that met its match with my smartphone:
Woot must have not known about the 2020 HOT DZ09 Smartwatch shown above that sells for $1.99 on Wish.com, not $99.99 as advertised to sucker people in like me to buy it for a deal.
Who would have guessed that the smartwatch was a thief programmed to steal?
When I received the security warning from Google on my Motorola One Zoom with the Android 10 update, I complained to Woot about the smartwatch having the phishing link included, and though Woot did give me a prompt refund, I later saw the Smartwatch still being sold.
But to be fair to the manufacturer and Woot, the smartwatch I received may have been one of a select group of smartwatches primed to steal personal data when connected to the phone after scanning the QR Code.
I was told to keep the smartwatch. Even though I do not have it connected to my phone, I don’t trust that darn smartwatch because I don’t know just how smart and scandalous it is with today’s technology. I lay it facedown to make sure that the camera isn’t spying on me and sending the data to its operator. 🙂
Affiliate Marketing
Now, as part of me making an honest living, unlike the scandalous individuals behind the thieving smartwatch and many online products, I am learning affiliate marketing to earn small commissions for products and services advertised, if purchased.
For both ads, I watched promotional videos and was impressed with their content.
ProVen is a weight loss product and advertised as time sensitive for purchasing at discounted rates.
I researched for complaints and did not find any complaints about the product. I did learn about bogus websites that use ProVen to scam purchasers. Please check out the referenced information below for WonderfulThingsDone.com to learn more.
Promotional Ads:
PROVEN WEIGHT LOSS SUPPLEMENT
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At no cost to the customer, we receive a small commission for a product or service purchased through this website. The commission does not necessarily influence the decision to advertise or promote a particular product or service.
Freight Brokering
Check out Freight Brokers Boot Camp. The Customer Satisfaction rating is 4.8 out of 5.
For those who want to learn how to be a Freight Broker, this appears to be a good course, as it sells often and my research failed to find anything negative about the company who sells the programs.
At no cost to the customer, we receive a small commission for a product or service purchased through this website. The commission does not necessarily influence the decision to advertise or promote a particular product or service.
Life After Release-4 by Wayne T. Dowdy
Life After Release takes on different forms for me each day. One thing I try to remember is not forgetting how I felt trapped inside as a man imprisoned and often helpless to do what I knew I was capable of, such as what I do now: write professionally on a computer and blast words around the world with a few strokes on a keyboard.
Though I blasted a lot from Inside the prison system because I was published in International magazines, and paid to have this website built, and paid to use an expensive and convoluted emailing system to type blogs to send to my publisher for posting, I couldn’t do as I do now as a free man.
For the last week I’ve been working on this website and another to increase loading speed and functioning (still in process). I upgraded the hosting plan on another website to improve its functioning and security, and worked on it to facilitate my affiliate marketing agenda.
I remain committed to become more successful than I have at this point of life, regardless of my having done well since my release.
Stars Shine Ahead!
GOODWILL Floor Care
Along with the above, I’ve continued to work on my regular job like an Alaskan malamute 1 (dogs commonly seen pulling sleds through snow and ice), cleaning and beautifying floors in Goodwill Stores by sweeping, mopping, removing old wax with chemicals, razor blades, and machines, before waxing to make it sparkle and shine with reflections from the overhead lights.
1 The Alaskan Malamute, one of the oldest Arctic sled dogs, is a powerful and substantially built dog with a deep chest and strong, well-muscled body. Alaskan Malamute Dog Breed Information
Topics for Change
I often wonder about topics to post that will benefit others in some way, whether by drawing attention to a cause, or simply allowing those trapped behind the walls, bars, and fences of prisons to have their voice heard.
Yesterday, my course of action became clear when a man Inside reached out for help. I listened to his plea and am sharing the following message from the man who is a contact inside the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
My hope is for those who care about what goes on Behind Closed Doors to contact the news media personnel provided by the imprisoned individual who cared enough about the COVID-19 situation inside the prison to risk his safety and security by sending an email he knows the prison administration would frown upon and could chose to retaliate against him.
This Door I Refuse to Keep Closed and Am Shouting Out His Plea for Help!
COVID-19 and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections
Received October 3, 2020
Message from Concerned Wisconsin Department of Correction Prisoner
“I hope you are doing well! I’m straight, I think! My test from when the National Guard tested us was negative ( well they didn’t come to my cell door for me or my celly – as of right now. ) However, it is scary right now!!
“Usually, I would send you a memorandum directly from the Warden/etc. so that I don’t relay unconscious bias opinion when I make my objective and personal opinion of the direction of the institution. However, they are not communicating with us of what is going on. If it is not to create hysteria it is having the opposite. Communication would make this that more easily bearable.
“Personally, I understand that Oshkosh is the most populated institutions in the state. That it is practically impossible to isolate the outbreak of positives cases within for the required 14 days. Technically, if you’re having symptoms or have COVID you’re quarantined but what about the in cases of you have it, but your cellmate doesn’t. Well they are still celled together. The negative guy is panicking. Get me out of here. Yesterday they took a guy out on a stretcher to the hospital because his oxygen levels were extremely low.
“We as inmates don’t make it better because we weren’t or not self-reporting if we have or had symptoms.
“We can’t clean rooms, no showers, no phones to communicate with your people.
“I don’t know if you will receive this email, please let me know if you did. Sent 9-3-2020 at 10:22 am! [Date is probably an error: 9-3-2020 is likely meant to be 10/3/2020 as it was received on October 3, 2020).
“People are not allowed private communication with their lawyers!!!!
“Help!!!!
“I know people have been contacting you about issues about state food shortages and portions, hot water for coffee is something we have to sacrifice but safety is supposed to be priority # 1 but to have a positive and a negative celled up is dangerous.
“A few said they are having or have had their people call to the institution for what exactly I don’t know. My position is it’ll do nothing to complain to the person or people that are making the inconsistent decisions to correct them. You must, we must contact local news and or court tv of the mistreatment and mishandling.
“This is a list of possible people that have drawn interest in prison issues: Kia Murray at kmurray@wluk.com (Northeast Wisconsin fox11news); juliana.falk@nbc26.com Northeast Wisconsin news); Julia Jena @ court tv news # 470-355-8635; Sara Thomsen at sthomsen@wbay.com fox valley local news.
“Without contacting those people to bring awareness things will only get worse! Hoping that this goes away is not the answer. Thanks for your time and I looking forwarded to hearing from you.”
Anonymous Prisoner
[I chose to protect his identity]
Prisoners are human, too, even if some may not behave that way.
Please do what you can to draw attention to what continues to go on Inside this particular prison and many others around the Nation and abroad.
In the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons, as of October 2, 2020, more than 124 prisoners have died. Here is a partial report from the actual statistics
(Only facilities with deaths are reported in this blog. The full list may be seen at http://www.bop.gov/coronavirus).
“The inmate totals listed do not include inmates participating in the Federal Location Monitoring program, inmates supervised under the USPO, or being held in privately managed prisons. Additionally, the reference to the FCI Butner Low below refers to an isolation unit that is physically separated from the rest of the LSCI. References to RRCs include both individuals housed at the RRC and individuals on home confinement under the RRC’s supervision.
“10/02/2020 – The BOP has 126,586 federal inmates in BOP-managed institutions and 14,375 in community-based facilities. The BOP staff complement is approximately 36,000. There are 1,565 federal inmates and 726 BOP staff who have confirmed positive test results for COVID-19 nationwide. Currently, 13,452 inmates and 1,164 staff have recovered. There have been 124 federal inmate deaths and 2 BOP staff member deaths attributed to COVID-19 disease. Of the inmate deaths, 4 occurred while on home confinement.
[I conclude with this section that I modified to reflect content I send inside the Federal Bureau of Prisons to clients subscribed to my email]
[To read numbers: the left column under the facility is Inmate confirmed cases (I.P.), next is Staff (S.P.), the third from left is Inmate Deaths (I.D.), the fourth column is Staff Deaths (S.D.); the fifth column Inmates Recovered (I.R.) and the others are Staff Recovered (S.R.), City and State].
Facility I.P. S.P. I.D. S.D. I.R. S.R. City State
Butner Low FCI 1 1 17 1 627 17 Butner NC
Fort Worth FMC 5 10 12 0 615 6 Fort Worth TX
Terminal Island FCI 0 3 10 0 596 23 San Pedro CA
Butner Medium I FCI 0 1 9 0 186 32 Butner NC
Elkton FCI 2 0 9 0 942 54 Lisbon OH
Lexington FMC 7 0 9 0 206 13 Lexington KY
Oakdale I FCI 0 13 7 0 214 21 Oakdale LA
Carswell FMC 1 3 6 0 522 1 Fort Worth TX
Seagoville FCI 6 1 4 0 1300 29 Seagoville TX
Milan FCI 1 1 3 0 85 55 Milan MI
Yazoo City Low FCI 0 5 3 0 93 9 Yazoo City MS
Coleman Medium FCI 51 34 2 0 194 1 Sumterville FL
Devens FMC 0 2 2 0 45 6 Ayer MA
Lompoc FCI 0 3 2 0 746 16 Lompoc CA
Lompoc USP 0 4 2 0 156 24 Lompoc CA
Marion USP 2 8 2 0 133 9 Marion IL
Miami FDC 29 33 2 0 129 21 Miami FL
Terre Haute USP 3 1 2 0 82 2 Terre Haute IN
The Geo Group (RRC) 1 0 2 0 3 0 Houston TX
ACS Corrections (RRC) 0 0 1 0 1 0 Del Valle TX
Atlanta USP 6 8 1 0 55 8 Atlanta GA
Behavioral Systems SW (RRC) 0 0 1 0 0 0 Phoenix AZ
Brawley RRC (RRC) 1 0 1 0 3 0 Brawley CA
Coleman Low FCI 1 24 1 1 219 6 Sumterville FL
Danbury FCI 2 0 1 0 81 64 Danbury CT
Dismas Charities (RRC) 0 0 1 0 0 0 Hattiesburg MS
Edgefield FCI 2 16 1 0 90 10 Edgefield SC
GEO Care Inc. (RRC) 0 0 1 0 1 0 Brownsville TX
GEO Care, Inc. (RRC) 2 0 1 0 0 0 Bronx NY
Jesup FCI 0 19 1 0 251 3 Jesup GA
Miami FCI 9 25 1 0 122 10 Miami FL
Oakdale II FCI 1 9 1 0 9 6 Oakdale LA
Oklahoma City FTC 68 12 1 0 177 6 Oklahoma City OK
San Diego MCC 16 17 1 0 352 7 San Diego CA
Terre Haute FCI 13 1 1 0 104 8 Terre Haute IN
Victorville Medium I FCI 9 10 1 0 342 10 Victorville CA
Volunteers of America TX (RRC) 10 0 1 0 11 0 Hutchins TX
Yazoo City USP 22 7 1 0 66 12 Yazoo City MS
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[Nine deaths shown below are not counted in the 124 reported above]
Private Facilities
Privately-managed prisons are secure institutions operated by private companies under contract and oversight of the BOP. The majority of federal inmates in private prisons are sentenced criminal aliens who will be deported upon completion of their sentence. Unlike federal inmates housed in BOP facilities, the contractor is responsible for the medical care and the costs associated with providing those services.
The BOP has 13,932 inmates in Privately-Managed Facilities. There are 105 inmates who have open lab-confirmed positive cases. 547 inmates have recovered. Full breakdown and additional details are below:
Facility I.P. I.D. I.R. City State
D. Ray James CI 50 3 144 Folkston GA
Big Spring CI 41 0 46 Big Spring TX
Great Plains CI 13 1 112 Hinton OK
Reeves III CI 1 0 0 Pecos TX
Giles W. Dalby CI 0 2 81 Post TX
McRae CI 0 1 20 Mcrae Helena GA
North Lake CI 0 2 107 Baldwin MI
Reeves I & II CI 0 0 12 Pecos TX
Rivers CI 0 0 25 Winton NC
All inmates are being appropriately treated and isolated per CDC guidelines.
BREAKING NEWS
[Update: June 10, 2022: I checked a link to the former BOP director’s testimony before Congress and learned it had been moved, so I corrected the URL, and want to suggest that readers also check out a blog I wrote after my release from the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons, where I added copies of letters to the honorable Mark S. Inch, x-BOP Director, and the Honorable Trey Gowdy, former Congress person. Fight for Change.
I also want to note that achieving Platinum Certification in WorkKeys did not help me get a job. Several job recruiters showed a lot of interest in my impressive credentials until asking when I was born or when did I receive my GED or High School Diploma. Several hung up the phone after I answered. My age knocked me out of more job opportunities than did my criminal history.]
[June 18, 2018] I have good and bad Breaking News. First, I commend President Trump for commuting the life sentence of Alice M. Johnson, a 63-year old grandmother trapped in the federal prison system for 21-years. The lovely Kim Kardashian West interceded on her behalf to President Trump.
Ms. Johnson was not a small-time drug dealer, but … 21-years is enough time in prison for anyone to serve who did not commit mass murders or horrendous crimes.
Now, if President Trump wants to save American taxpayers millions of dollars, he’ll instruct the Attorney General to order the BOP to reinterpret 18 U.S.C., Section 3624 to give federal prisoners the 54-days Congress provided for in the statute (see “INCREDIBLE NUMBERS FOR SEVEN DAYS”).
Other good news is that I succeeded at obtaining WorkKeys Platinum Certification to increase my chance of finding gainful employment upon release: More on that in a moment.
The bad news is that a nine-year study on recidivism was released in May 2018 that showed 83% of released prisoners from 30-states were re-arrested at least once during the study period. I’ll write more on that one, too!
MORE OF THE GOOD NEWS: In “Uncivil Wars” (08/17/17) and in “A Job Affair” (10/03/17), I listed what my ACT WorkKeys Skill Report showed for each of the three ACT skill levels. I scored in the Platinum range for two of the three categories. The Gold Certification I received was because of the Level 5 score in the Locating Information category (I needed one more correct answer to score as a Level 6), so that’s why I wanted to try again.
During the September 29, 2017, Mock Job Fair, the representative from the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department strongly suggested I retake the test because I was so close, and because only six percent of students receive the Platinum certification. I followed her advice.
CHANGES: Since I took the ACT tests in August 2017, WorkKeys changed their testing and scoring system. The Levels for Locating Information ranged from 3-to-6. When retested, I learned that Locating Information was replaced with Graphic Literacy. Students may now score up to a Level-7 in Graphic Literacy, the same as with Applied Mathematics and Reading for Information (also changed). The change made sense and made the testing more consistent.
This is from my ACT WorkKeys Skill Report:
WorkKeys Graphic Literacy:
You scored at Level 6. People who score at Level 6 have demonstrated all of the Levels 3, 4, and 5 skills. They also demonstrated, using graphics designed at the highly complex level, the following skills:
* Locate information in a graphic using information found in another graphic
* Compare two or more pieces of information
* Identify a trend/pattern/relationship
* Make an inference or decision
* Identify the graphic that accurately represents the data
Additionally, using graphics designed at the high-moderate level, they have demonstrated the following skills:
* Compare two or more trends/patterns/relationships
* Interpret a trend/pattern/relationship
* Make a reasonable inference or decision based on one graphic after finding information in another graphic
* Justify an inference or decision based on information
* Identify the most effective graphic given a defined purpose
* Justify the most effective graphic given a defined purpose
[End Quote] In Graphic Literacy and Applied Mathematics, my scale scores were 82. I did best at Reading for Information (Level 7, scale score of 87).
The above results show 1) I’m capable of interpreting data presented in recidivism studies that rely on graphs and complex data, and 2), I’m qualified to perform mathematical analysis to solve complex problems.
CONFESSION: I failed to perform to my fullest potential when writing “War & Reentry.”
A reader said I was unclear when writing about recidivism numbers and studies. Upon review, I saw I erred in comparison of recidivism numbers relied on by ex-director, Mark Inch. I wrote that he was wrong by stating federal prisoners recidivated at half the rate of state prisoners.
I was incorrect in one sense: If non-citizens were included into the federal study, the numbers would be much different; however, that is not the case. I used an incorrect formula to present the argument. The actual numbers were 67.8% for state prisoners, compared to 33.7% for federal prisoners rearrested within 3-years of release.
If 68-state prisoners and 34-federal prisoners were rearrested after their release during the same study period, the statement by Mark Inch would be true.
THE FACTS prove the statement untrue because the Feds released and deported thousands of illegal immigrants during the study period, many of whom illegally-returned to the United States and were rearrested (recidivated), but were not included in the “Recidivism Among Federal Offenders: A Comprehensive Overview.” Non-citizens were included in the comparison 5-year State study listed below.
Read more on the 2016 federal study in “Recidivism in America” (01/25/17), where I posted a link to the April 2014 comparison state study. Another associated article/blog is “An Inside View of Criminal Justice,” originally published by PrisonLawBlog.com (10/07/14). I show the influence of private prison companies on the BOP and failed policies that fuel mass incarceration.
INCREDIBLE NUMBERS FOR SEVEN DAYS: In “War & Reentry” I showed the millions of dollars American taxpayers will save if the BOP awards its prisoners 54-days per year, instead of the 47-days awarded since 11/01/1987, which resulted in prisoners serving longer prison sentences than intended by Congress.
The numbers listed were that 44,000 federal prisoners get released each year and that if released 7-days earlier, it would equate to an annual savings of thirty-million, six-hundred thirty-thousand, and six-hundred dollars.
Those numbers are correct: $30,630,600 saved by awarding federal prisoners the other 7-days lost in the BOP’s interpretation of federal law.
THE JUSTICES who dissented in Barber v. Thomas, 560 U.S. 474, 130 S.Ct. 2499, 177 L.Ed.2d 1, 13-16 (06/10/2010) cautioned that the majority opinion would add, “[t]ens of thousands of years of additional prison time on federal prisoners …. And if the only way to call attention to the human implications of this case is to speak in terms of economics, then it should be noted that the Court’s interpretation comes at a cost to the taxpayers of untold millions of dollars.”
The majority said the BOP’s interpretation was “reasonable” and that they must give it deference. The Justices did “[n]ot determine the extent to which Congress has granted the BOP authority to interpret the statute more broadly, or differently[;]” therefore, the agency may change their interpretation immediately to comply with the statute, clarified by the House of Representative in passing the FIRST STEP act with a vote of 360-59.
IF the BOP and Attorney General wants to save your taxpayer dollars, they will change their interpretation and give federal prisoners those other 7-days. The truth is, that if changed, the bureaucrats will probably give themselves large bonuses to consume funds saved.
COST OF INCARCERATION INCREASE: Between 2011 and 2017, the cost of incarcerating a federal prisoner rose from $79.16 to $99.45 per day or $28,893.40 to $36,299.25 per year. Federal Register, Vol. 78, No. 52 (03/18/13), and Vol. 83, No. 83 (04/30/18). That will grow.
BE PROACTIVE FOR CHANGE: Demand a change! Contact your Senator and Congressional Representative and ask him or her to push prison reform and a change from draconian sentencing laws that lead to mass incarceration. Demand that BOP (Backwards on Purpose) officials be held accountable and follow the law to reduce recidivism.
BACK TO THE NUMBERS: I questioned the figures when I thought of 44,000 as the number of released federal prisoners, so I went to the source: transcript of Ex-director, Mark Inch’s testimony before the “Oversight Hearing of the Bureau of Prisons” on April 17, 2018. Inch stated on page two, under subheading “OUR PROGRAMS – REENTRY BEGINS ON DAY ONE” as follows:
“Reentry programming is a critical component of public safety; inmates are much more likely to return to a life of crime and victimization if they leave prison without job training, treatment for mental illness and/or substance abuse, an education, and a general understanding of what it means to be a productive law abiding citizen. It is important that we in the Bureau help ensure the nearly 44,000 inmates who are released back into the communities each year do not repeat their past mistakes.” Inch-Testimony.pdf (house.gov)
EVIDENCE OF MORE RECIDIVISM: Last month the Bureau of Justice Statistics released a new study (“2018 Update on Prisoner Recidivism: A 9-Year Follow-up Period (2005-2014),” NCJ250975, May 2018), a follow-up to the 5-year study relied upon for comparison by the ex-director (“Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 30 States in 2005: Patterns from 2005 to 2010,” NCJ244205, April 2014).
The 83% recidivism rate revealed in the 9-year follow-up study shows the seriousness of recidivism in America and the need for a magic elixir that does not exist. Until financial incentives end for politicians who continue making policies and laws that fuel mass incarceration, positive change will be slow: It is time to stop state and federal funding for private prisons.
In 2015, former presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders, introduced a bill to bring back federal parole and to stop federal funding for private prisons. Apparently, none of Senator Sanders’ peers were interested in eliminating a source of income from private prison lobbyist, so the bill never made it to the vote stage of legislation.
FLAWED POLITICS: In passing laws and implementing policies and practices, the political trend for decades has been to restrict or prohibit violent felons from receiving time off their sentences for program participation. Criminal laws include increased penalties for career criminals and those who commit violent felonies.
To deny those offenders of program benefits increases the risk on society that those prisoners reoffend. Violent offenders need help, too.
Most violent offenders will be released from prison; therefore, those laws and policies are flawed and need restructured to include anyone who wants to participate and maybe change their lives, if the law-makers want to protect society and to reduce recidivism.
VIOLENT CRIME MISCONCEPTION: All categorically-listed crimes of violence do not contain violence. I addressed the issue in “Violent Crime Misconception” (02/24/16). I believe most people think of violent criminals as those who physically harm or threaten to harm their victims during the commission of crimes like rape, murder, and armed robbery.
Programs that current policy prohibits certain prisoners from receiving benefit from, are programs such as the Residential Drug Abuse Program. And in the event that the Senate approves the FIRST STEP act, any “Evidence-based Recidivism Reduction Program” or activity that reduces recidivism.
For instance, inmates with convictions for “certain” crimes of violence or sex crimes, will be prohibited from earning time off sentences by participating in evidence-based programs; e.g., Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR) that reduces recidivism by 24%; taking educational or vocational classes. Restrictions also apply to those who participate in faith-based or social programs; mentoring or teaching any evidence-based program; participating in cognitive behavior treatment, “victim impact classes or other restorative justice programs.”
Those aspects of legislation needs changed and made retroactive to award prisoners for positive behavior exemplified under dire circumstances. Maybe Kim Kardashian will help get votes in the Senate to change the failed criminal justice policies. Go girl!
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Wayne T. Dowdy writes at StraightFromthePen.com.
A JOB AFFAIR
by Wayne T. Dowdy
“You can if you think you can. Engrave those seven words deeply in your consciousness.
They are packed with power and with truth.” Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
January 5, 2023, Update: I have been free for years now and was at work speaking with a nice young lady when I referred to some of my previous blogs related to employment. I found an error in this one and am at home for lunch but wanted to make it right. 🙂
Since my release I have accomplished a lot but not near as much as I will continue to be doing. One of my accomplishments is being a writer on Quora.com, where you can read some of my popular post. I now have over 1.3 million views. Check me out at https://www.quora.com/profile/Wayne-T-Dowdy and my Space, Life Inside and Out. Please subscribe or at least click to follow. Thanks!
On September 29, 2017, I attended a Mock Job Fair: I took an 8-week Job Application and Resume’ Maker Class just to attend, as I knew how to prepare a resume’ and how to perform during job interviews. I walked into the room believing the door for a real job would open. I’m sure it did. More will be revealed!
Read on for more on the Mock Job Fair.
GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR: In “Seeking a Real Job” (July 7, 2017)*, I included my take on parts of an interview with the Georgia Labor Commissioner, Mr. Mark Butler, whom I had listened to on a local radio talk show, Georgia Focus. I liked what he said. (I carried a copy of that blog for the Mock Job Fair.)
WORKKEYS ASSESSMENT: I wrote “Seeking a Real Job” during my participation in WorkKeys. In “Waiting” (August 9, 2017), I wrote about WorkKeys and said, “Now I am waiting to see if I succeeded at obtaining Platinum certification. By the next blog I will know and will proudly boast if I scored the Platinum. If I did not qualify for it in two out of three categories, I will be shocked. No doubt I will at least grab the Gold!” The latter held true.
In “Uncivil Wars” (August 17, 2017), I shared the WorkKeys Assessment scores. I will do so again because I am so proud. 🙂 This time I will list the Scale Score, which may be “Use[d] to show growth over time and provide group comparisons in outcome measurement. Not intended for selection and hiring. Scale Score range: 50-90.” ACT WorkKeys Summary, Report Date: 08/11/2017.
Even though I did not obtain three Platinum Levels, I did receive two out of three (Level 5 is Gold, 6 & 7 Platinum). I believe I only missed one question in the Locating Information Assessment that knocked me out of that Platinum Level. Here are the results as listed on my ACT WorkKeys Skill Report:
“Applied Mathematics (Levels range from 3 to 7) Level: 6 Scale Score 82
“This person scored Level 6. Individuals with Level 6 skills can set up and solve problems containing extraneous information or information presented out of logical order and involving multiple-step calculations on a mixture of whole numbers, fractions, decimals, or percentages.
“Locating Information (Levels range from 3 to 6) Level: 5 Scale Score 84
“This person scored at Level 5. Individuals with Level 5 skills can correctly use complicated workplace graphics, such as complex forms and tables, multivariable graphs, and detailed diagrams, to compare trends and main points, and/or summarize information within a single graphic or across more than one graphic representing related information.
“Reading for Information (Levels range from 3 to 7) Level: 7 Scale Score: 87
“This person scored at Level 7. Individuals with Level 7 skills can apply concepts from densely detailed selections, such as excerpts from complex regulatory and legal documents, to new situations. They can understand difficult concept and complex procedures containing jargon and technical terms whose definitions must be derived from context. Level 7 is the highest level measured by this test.”
GOLD IS GOOD, PLATINUM BETTER: In some respects, the most beneficial thing that I have done recently, is to take the WorkKeys class and to participate in the Job Application and Resume’ Maker Class; however, if I weren’t so close to getting out, then I’d need to take the WorkKeys class again, if not released within five-years, because that is when WorkKeys’ certificates expire. I am still considering taking it again to get the Platinum Level for Locating Information. If I don’t though, the Gold works well and is still impressive to potential employers.
MOCK JOB FAIR: The purpose of the Mock Job Fair is to prepare participants for the job interview process. Each interviewer writes comments to help us improve our interviewing skills and thus increase our chances of getting a job.
This institution has over 1,300 inmates; approximately fifteen enrolled, but only six of us completed the requisite Job Application & Resume’ Maker Class to attend the Mock Job Fair. All six of us did exceptionally well, according to the final comments by the interviewers.
Four volunteers came in for the job interview process. I will list them in the order of my interviews:
Ms. S. (Human Services Coordinator I-SNAP/TANF) and Mr. G., both from the South Carolina Department of Social Services;
Ms. M. (Business Services Recruiter) for the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL);
Ms. W. (Business Development Specialist) for the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department.
The expansive room was arranged with three plush seats on the back wall for Executive staff members (none were filled. One of the two planned Associate Wardens did come into the room for a while).
Our six seats sat facing the three empty Executive staff seats. At the end of the Mock Job Fair, a teacher presented us with our Certificates, in place of the planned Executive staff member who failed to fulfill her commitment.
INTERVIEWS: Three tables were arranged to accommodate the process; one table and three seats were arranged to our left; two for the Social Service workers and one for the Interviewee.
Two tables for interviews sat on each side of the empty Executive Staff seats: Ms. M.’s table sat to the right, Ms. W.’s sat to the left, each with two seats, one for the volunteer and one for the Interviewee.
Ms. W. from V.R. appeared late because some rocket scientist sent her to go buy some different clothes from the Family Dollar Store, which often happens to visitors at this institution.
Women beware! You cannot wear the popular, church-going, open-sleeve blouses or open-toed shoes into this facility.
THE PROCESS: Each Interviewer had a form to complete to provide participants with comments and to rate their Interview Performance. This is the information on the form contained for each Interviewer to complete:
Resume’ Legible?
Resume’ Complete?
Good Eye Contact?
Good Posture?
Applicant’s Verbal Participation? TOO MUCH JUST RIGHT NOT ENOUGH
Would this person be eligible for hire in a “real” interview? YES POSSIBLY NO
If not, what does the applicant need to work on?
Overall Interview Performance: EXCELLENT GOOD AVERAGE POOR
Comments (Note: Give the evaluation to the applicant at the end of the interview.)
MY RESULTS: Each Interviewer answered all questions favorably; with YES as an option, Yes, and JUST RIGHT for my Verbal Participation.
FIRST INTERVIEW: My first interview was with Social Services who gave me a GOOD on Overall Interview Performance, and a comment of “Job well done.”
I wanted EXCELLENT so I mentally reviewed the process to determine where I could improve and then focused on what I felt needed changed. Conclusion: I needed to provide shorter answers with less emotional responses.
***
SECOND INTERVIEW: My second interview was with Ms. M. of the Georgia Department of Labor, my favorite, of course, because I am from and will return to Georgia upon release. She gave me an EXCELLENT rating, and told me at the end of the interview that out of all the interviews she has ever had, and that she has had a lot, that “in here” and “out there,” that my interview was by far her best. 🙂
To paraphrase what she said, “You answered all of my questions properly and provided me with all the information I needed to hear as a potential employer. Your resume’ is phenomenal! Not only did you walk in with confidence and tell me all you could do, you presented me with evidence to show you can do what you listed on your resume’. You maintained good eye contact. Your posture was good, you sit up straight, and done really well in all respects.”
On the form, her comments were: “Great job on interview, and telling about skills and training. Loved that you had certificates ready. I would hire you in a second! Good job!”
I walked in prepared and provided her with my resume’, WorkKeys Skill Report, certification as a Quality Assurance Inspector, college transcripts from four colleges, and my diploma from the Long Ridge Writers Group (a two-year, college-accredited writing course). I also have a certificate that verifies I am an ISO Internal Auditor; I failed to include it with my package to send to Mr. Butler at GDOL.
When asked if I had any questions for her, I asked whether my age would be a deterrent at getting a job? That lead to her saying that some of their employees worked up into their eighties. That really gave me hope, as one of my concerns was finding an employer who would hire me for my skills and capabilities, and who would not worry about my being sixty-one when I am released.
She went on to say that she thought I’d do well with them (GA Dept. of Labor) as a Career Counselor, I believe is what she referred to. I know it was something that concerned working with others, which I will follow-up on. By that point, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for hearing such positive comments.
“I may be interested in working for the Georgia Department of Labor,” I said, and explained that it would be a way for me to make amends for the harm I’ve caused the citizens of Georgia and society at large. I informed her that I’d be going to the Atlanta area. She agreed to speak with Mr. Butler about the interview, and instructed me to contact them as soon as I got to the halfway house. 🙂
I will do that!
***
THIRD INTERVIEW: My last interview was with Ms. W. from V.R., who rated me the same as Ms. M., and was as equally impressed with my resume’. However, based upon her comments, I feel she likes the resume’ format that contains SUMMARY QUALIFICATIONS in place of an OBJECTIVE, and maybe a functional format, instead of a combined format.
This was her comments: “Make sure to list specific skills in your interview. Start with 5-10 of most important. Put WorkKeys score report with resume/application.”
I failed to make extra copies of my WorkKeys Assessment Skills and had already given away the one I brought. In an actual interview, I’d never forget to include a copy, as she suggested. I do appreciate all advice and comments that I received.
GRATITUDE: I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and do appreciate the staff who made it possible, and I am especially grateful for each volunteer who took the time out of their busy schedule to come inside the confines of a federal prison.
I highly recommend that all eligible inmates and those of you on the outside who are in the market for a job, to participate in programs and events such as Job Fairs and to take WorkKeys.
HOROSCOPE: I am not really into astrology, per se, but I do see a lot of truth in some of what I have read. My characteristics as a Child of an Aires were fitting. This particular reading impressed me:
July 30, 2017, Horoscope, Aires (March 21st – April 19th)
“You don’t know your power. That’s not your fault, though. Your power has a lot to do with forces beyond your control.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 30, 2017.
I read that horoscope and thought, Huh, so that’s why I do so well under the circumstances and have been able to do things I never dreamed were possible, straight from pen. I know a force greater than myself watches over me.
When I was fourteen-years-young, a lady who knew me well said, “You must have two Guardian Angels because you’d worn one out.” I plan to do good things upon release from prison that will help others live better lives. I need all the help I can get from that power greater than me, whom I choose to call God.
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* In “Seeking a Real Job” an incorrect link was posted for viewing a photo gallery that contains a photo of me at the World of Work Graduation Ceremony. The correct link is now irrelevant. To purchase or to read some free eBooks go to https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/WayneMrDowdy
GRATITUDE AND MORE
from Wayne T. Dowdy
Last year on December 23, 2015, I posted “Plot to Stop Santa by Mr. D.” to add a little humor to the holiday season (read it on straightfromthepen.wordpress.com or waynedowdy.weebly.com and check out Santa’s militarized sled). This year I am writing along personal lines and will share some previous messages I sent out to those on my Corrlinks contact list. My hope is to create a sense of gratitude.
12/25/2011: On Christmas Day, I sat in my cell reading my favorite magazine (THE SUN). “Chow time,” the guard shouted.
I rushed to the chow hall. Inside, I sat at a rectangular table of four with three of my peers. One person stood to leave. Each of us exchanged Christmas greetings, wishing him a Merry Christmas before a 27-year-old youngster sat down to take his place.
The one who sat to the right of the youngster had just complained how the Cornish game hen was small. I had previously tried to maintain the attitude of gratitude at the table by commenting how it was good, though, it was smaller than those we had had in the past. It was still tasty. I simply agreed with the other guy about it being smaller than usual. I labeled it as a “Cornish Game Chick.”
That’s when the youngster sat down. “There sure are a lot of complaining people at this prison,” he said.
His words filled me with guilt. He had once told me that both of his parents were still in state prison. I realized his parents were probably doing worse than all of us at the table.
The youngster’s comment helped redirect the nature of our conversations toward what we were grateful for.
I shared my favorite saying by an author whose name I do know to give him or her their credit due (“I complained of having no shoes until I met a man with no feet.”).
I continued to express gratitude for the well-prepared meal; knowing we were all fortunate to have what sat before us, as we compared our plight to others incarcerated in state and other federal prisons, who probably wished they could eat as good as we were.
This is what we had to complain about: a Cornish game hen, black-eyed peas, which were really good; collard greens, rolls or wheat bread (I chose wheat bread); an individually packaged cherry pie, chocolate cup cake, and some other stuff I probably forgot. I ate my fill.
Each of us walked away feeling more grateful for the meal we had been blessed with because we had stopped for a moment to remember the less fortunate in life.
Not only do I have two feet and nice shoes, I have a fat belly filled with gratitude. I hope each of you have a wonderful Christmas meal and feel fortunate for the freedom you share in a less than perfect world.
Sincerely,
Wayne
**********
Along the same theme as above, I wrote this on America’s Turkey Day:
THANKSGIVING DAY 2016: Happy Thanksgiving Day to each of you. If you feel like you don’t have much to be thankful for because of the hardships life has thrown at you this year, stop to think of all you have to be grateful for; perhaps you have food to eat; two feet, two arms, shoes on your feet, and clothes to warm your body, a place to stay and be safe. Feel fortunate.
When I find myself disgruntled for having to wait for an hour in the commissary to purchase a few items, I try to stop and remember those who wish they had my problems, financially able to shop for a few items needed to maintain a decent level of living inside this prison. That makes me feel grateful for the opportunity, rather than disgruntled and agitated for having to wait as I listen to loud mouths shouting to the man next to them, disturbing the peace, killing the sound of silence.
Upon remembrance of the less fortunate, I find myself grateful for the simple things in life I often take for granted. Be thankful for those you have in your life who love and care for you. Happy Thanksgiving!
**********
For those of you who follow me through other means of social media, you may have read the message below that I wrote after losing one of my brothers, Larry. I once had a mother, father, three brothers and two sisters. I am now down to one brother and two sisters.
In 1978 I lost Stanley, my older brother. In 1982 I lost my father, and then in 2016 I lost my younger brother, Larry, after having lost my mother eight months before him.
The loss of two loved ones in the same year was why I wrote what I did about “the hardships life has thrown at you this year”; including myself in the equation. I write to show we still have things to be grateful for in light of the hardships we experience as the cost of our love for others.
Some people lost their whole family and suffered tragic loss of limbs and even more severe health issues. That makes me grateful to still have family members who remain in my life. I am also grateful for my less-than perfect health.
The families of some prisoners abandon them because they go to prison. My family has stood behind me, even though my actions were unacceptable to them; my actions that landed me in prison. I am fortunate!
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September 18, 2016: One of my two younger brothers moved on to the next phase of existence around 3:00 PM today. Larry was the most gentle and innocent of the four sons birthed by our Mother. Not that he was innocent; he wasn’t, but he was not driven by hate or anger and he never intentionally harmed anyone that I know of. Him and Jeff, the youngest of us, were never the rowdy type, whereas me and Stanley were hell raisers.
Larry was a kind and all around good person. It hurts like hell to know he is gone, but I do rejoice in knowing he no longer suffers from his illnesses. He lives without pain in some other place we all must go one day. Maybe he fishes from a rainbow, catching a few rays, as he surfs the ocean in pursuit of eternal peace. I hope he catches an abundance of love and happiness during his journey. No doubt, many here on earth loved and will miss him.
Ironically, he passed away on my ex-wife’s birthday. Our Mother passed away on the birthday of our son, Jonathon. For those of you who believe in God, please keep the family in prayer as we go through a difficult time. Thanks! Wayne
**********
December 18, 2016: Yesterday my remaining siblings came to visit me. We had a good visit. Though each of us are grateful to still have each other in our lives, I sensed the emptiness from the unspoken loss of our loved ones.
Loved ones fill a space in our hearts that no one else can replace. God made that spot just for them, whether our memories and feelings are good or bad, that space is theirs.
I am grateful to have been blessed with the love given to me by those, whom that power greater than myself, put into my life.
I am also grateful for my eyes* and other physical features that I use to write and send my words beyond the walls and barbwire fences that surround me at this juncture of my life.
Prison only confines my body: I refuse to allow it to consume my sense of being, or to rob me of my dignity and integrity. I am a man first and a prisoner second.
My mind and spirit are freer today than when I roamed the streets in 1988 before my arrest. God gave me a life worth living.
Better days are on the horizon. When I walk out of these prison doors, Straight From the Pen will come alive, more like straight from the keyboard.
In an upcoming blog, I will share a former prisoner’s inspiring story. Brandon Sample is one who proves people can leave prison and succeed in life, by beginning to build the path toward a better life while inside doing their time.
Miracles happen. Have faith and never loose hope. Hope keeps the world going.
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* I have an essay titled “Eyes” that I wrote in gratitude of my eyesight that I am fortunate to still have. It is an inspirational story available in ESSAYS & MORE STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN.
Purchase UNKNOWN INNOCENCE ($12.95 USD) and ESSAYS & MORE STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN ($8.95 USD) while the prices are low. Available in paperback at Amazon.com and other eStores, and as eBooks at Smashwords.com, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.Kindle, and other eBook retailers.
Visit my Smashwords authors page today https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/WayneMrDowdy.
THE INTERNET
By Wayne T. Dowdy
Originally posted on SurePleasurez Promotions in November 2013
The Internet is as foreign to me as Australia and Japan: Not by choice, per se. The federal prison system prohibits our use of most available technology. I’ve never surfed the deep-blue waves of streaming data bombarding the shores of one’s mind; nor have I been carried away by memory chips and marketing scams generated by computer programs designed to figure out behavior patterns. Nor have I used a search engine and possibly never will, since search engines may be replaced by an App market. WIFI connections may be the primary link to the world of electronic data by the time I am released on April 24, 2019. Maybe before then federal prisoners will be allowed to surf the web on a modified system. We can at least now send and receive emails on such a modified program.
It was 2011 before I communicated by email, other than having my sister to send one for me. The email system I now use to send this blog is through Corrlinks (www.corrlinks.com). I pay five-cents per minute to access the public messaging system, which I gladly do with me being a writer who likes to write things for people to read. 🙂 Though modified and watered-down, I can put messages on the wire; however, instantaneous messaging is not permitted. Due to security controls, it takes at least two-hours (an hour going to the sender and an hour to get a response). Using the system may also be a hassle to those on the outside unless they purchase the Premium package that eliminates some of the typical hassles one encounters. For instance, it takes several steps to get to the actual messaging center so they can send the email, and unless they check in the right spot (in the “Account Management” section to receive an “E-mail Notification”), which often fails to work, they have to periodically go to www.corrlinks.com to check for emails. With the Premium package or mobile app the system notifies them. Anyway, for me, at least it brings me closer to the technology I hope to one day embrace: talking cars, GPS telling me how to get where I am going, and a computer that thinks for me.
In 2004 I took a computer course for Microsoft Office Applications, through the Louisiana Community and Technical College (I think that’s the correct name), and I made A’s in Word 2000, Excel, and Access, so I am computer savvy. I also use the Microsoft program at work in a Textile plant where I am an internal auditor and document control clerk, but the system I have to use for security concerns is very restrictive. It’s part of the Intranet for the federal prison industries; a very limited part of it, where I’m not allowed to do things like send an email, use Wizards, or any type of macro functions. In 1990, while at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, long before the day when Congress removed PELL grant options from prisoners and ended most in-house college programs, I had also taken Computer Science classes through Saint Mary’s College. Back then, voice activated computers were in the trial stage and experiencing technical difficulties. Now, phones respond to verbal commands and have become personal computers people tote in their pockets; their owners online at all times. I’ve never used a cellphone either, and have only seen one up close, which was a BlackBerry belonging to the warden who was kind enough to show it to me during a Re-entry program graduation, where both of us were guest speakers.. I had seen a mobile phone a friend of mine had in his car in 1988 before I was arrested, but never one you could put in your pocket or use to search into the depths of the constant chatter and volumes of data on every topic.
In 1990, about a year and a half after I began serving this sentence at Leavenworth, I sat before a committee reviewing my case (commonly known as the Unit Team). Because of my high custody and security point scoring, the spokesperson said, “You need to stay out of trouble and not get any disciplinary write ups.” I snapped. “I don’t care about the hole or anything you can do to me. All I care about is my visits and I won’t be getting any out here in Cowboy Country. By the time I have served thirty years, I won’t care about doing five more. Besides that, I won’t know how to fly a spaceship in 2020.” It left them speechless.
Now, twenty-five years into the sentence I never thought I’d live to see the end of, the end is in sight and may be coming sooner than I thought. I could learn to fly a virtual spaceship if released. If I could go online, I could go anywhere in the world at the speed on the next computer chip. No wires needed: Only a memory chip to navigate the way.
June 15, 2019, Update: I am now a free citizen and the virtual world dominates reality of life in the society upon which I now live, controlled more by computer chips than humans, in the information age of technology. Flying cars exist and space travel is available for the wealthy who want to try life in places other than earth. For me, I’ll remain here and keep doing what I need to do to survive this thing called life, navigating through it with the available technology I can afford. Not much.
AGAPE LOVE
Penitentiaries are not the typical place to learn about love; however, I attended Kairos in 2003-2004 while at the United States Penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana. Kairos is a prison outreach program where people of different faiths come together to teach the central theme about the love Jesus Christ has for us. Kairos means in God’s Special Time.
During the gratifying experience, I learned about Agape love. The mentors taught that Agape love is unconditional, it is how God loves us mere mortals. I do not have to do anything to receive it, other than to open up my heart and let the love flow in through the portals God opens for me to receive it.
I am loved in light of my many character defects and imperfections. That is real love, because God is love.
Agape love is a powerful form of love God allows us to share with others, without stipulations or expectations of return, or favors in exchange. It is free, the best deal around. I am blessed with serenity when I am able to open up and let the love shine in. Wayne T. Dowdy, straightfromthepen.com
#NATURE – Frogs, an Octopus & #Escapees
#NATURE–FROGS, AN OCTOPUS & #ESCAPEES
I believe it is natural for most living beings to want to be free, at least, under normal circumstances. Some captives do become institutionalized and prefer captivity over freedom, but most prefer to be free; some will go to any length to have it, even at the risk of being killed in the process of trying to obtain it through unlawful means. I know because I have done that before.
TREE FROG WITHOUT A TREE: On June 4, 2015, I saved a tiny, dark green, treeless, tree frog from “frog-nappers” or demented, foot-stomping prisoners, waiting to inflict pain or death by foot. I am a converted frog-napper, so I know the profile. I frog-napped another one but only to protect it from harm, not for entertainment purposes. It wasn’t my first one.
I chased the little frog in an unnatural habitat for us both; along a concrete sidewalk inside a federal prison, before I covered it with my hand and captured it for relocation to a safer area. The sidewalk ran in front of several connected buildings: chapel, psychology and education departments, and the Federal Prison Industries factory where I work. I was one of the first to hit the sidewalk en route to a meeting for those who want to live a different life than before.
I walked past the frog before it registered in my mind that a frog sit in the middle of the sidewalk. I backed up and the chase began. The hopping frog was no match for a stepper like me. Fortunate for the frog, I had it in my hand before hundreds of feet raced down the sidewalk. I carried it back to work with me after learning the meeting had been cancelled.
Prior to my freeing the treeless tree frog, inside the factory where I work, I put the frog inside a Styrofoam cup with another cup sitting upside down on top of the cup holding the frog. Moments later I slightly separated the two cups to let some air in, but not wide enough for the frog to escape. I went to work with the cup-of-frog sitting a foot away from me. As I sat typing on the computer, I heard a scratching sound and saw the frog peeping between the crack. I made it jump down and then repositioned the cups to stop it from doing it again. I poked a hole in the top of the top cup so the frog could breathe.
A minute later, the top cup popped off the other cup and fell on the table; the frog still inside, after its escape plan failed.
I put the cups back together. It tried again, this time jumping harder and higher, desperate to obtain its freedom. The cup flipped and fell inside the other cup, on top of the frog. Another failed escape plan. The point is, that not just people want to be free. Everything wants to be free, treeless tree frogs included. I wanted it to be free, too, and changed my plan for its release, which I had planned to do after work by putting it near a drain as I did another frog that I will write about shortly.
FREEDOM FOR A FROG: I released the tiny arboreal amphibian through a one-inch diameter pipe hole in a two-foot-thick, concrete wall where I work, so that it could hop or crawl along safely without being in danger of prisoner abuse. Of course, that is not to say that a snake, crow, or other predator did not lie in wait on the other side of the wall for its next meal to hop to the ground. No one can change fate.
Most prisoners would avoid stepping on a frog but some would stomp one to act macho or perhaps to just see its splattered remains on the sidewalk. Some are sicker than others. Some will capture one to keep it as a pet and then go to great extremes to catch and feed it insects, such as my friend, Jeffrey P. Frye, who blogs at http://bankblogger.weebly.com and http://www.murderslim.com/JeffreyPFrye.html. For an entertaining read, check out his January 2015 blog post, “Welcome to the Jungle.”
FIRST TREELESS TREE FROG RESCUE: Ironically, the last treeless tree frog that I captured inside this prison was not my first one of late; however, I prefer to say that I relocated it to safety, rather than “captured it.” That is because the police captured me and I did not like that at all, even if it did save me from myself. A lot of people probably rejoiced. Anyway, back to the frog. The truth is that I frog-napped it no matter how I justify my actions. I forced it to go with me as the slippery little creature kicked and squirmed inside my hand to try to escape.
Two weeks before the tree frog without a tree, a damsel in distress asked me to catch a treeless tree frog that had chosen the doorjamb in the chapel as a hiding spot. It clung to the steel frame of the door, near the lower hinge. On that day, an attractive Nubian Princess summoned me to the door with a wave of her hand. I obeyed without protest. She said, “Please get that frog and move it somewhere so it won’t get hurt.”
She knew I was a softy and told me so because she was at the scene when me and other prisoners protected the snake I wrote about in “Snake vs. Politics.”
“I called you over because I know you will make sure it doesn’t get hurt.”
I appreciated her vote of confidence. “It sure did pick a strange place to hang out,” I said, as I moved into position to capture the treeless tree frog before the door slammed and squished the little creature.
After capturing it, I relocated it to an area near a storm drain so it could hide from a crow or some other predator, including the infamous frog-nappers and frog-abusers.
BULLFROG: A week before that frog, me and a friend was walking on an asphalt track out on the recreation yard and found a frog sitting on the edge of the pavement. I relocated it to an area beside the perimeter fence. I concluded that that one was a bullfrog, because when I threw it into a puddle of water, it took a dive and I haven’t seen it since.
Tree frogs do not dive under water. I know because I tried the same experiment with the last frog I caught by filling a sink with water, and it just floated when I let it go for a swim. That told me it wasn’t a bullfrog, even though it did look a lot like the one on the recreation yard.
Before those frogs, I saw others within the last month that I helped by removing them from the same sidewalk. I found several others over the years that I relocated from major walkways or asphalt tracks to prevent them from being killed or injured. I like frogs and all living creatures, so I don’t harm any of them. I even avoid stepping on ants or other insects and won’t kill a mosquito because I feel they have as much of a right to be on this earth as I do.
WHAT’S UP WITH THESE FROGS IN PRISON? Maybe they are a sign of some sort. Hmmm. A former fiance’e (Karen, who I wrote about in “A Prisoner and a Poem for a Princess”) said I had frog qualities. Maybe she thought I was a frog waiting to be turned into a prince with a kiss. She had read a book on Native American beliefs to come up with my “frog qualities”; which had something to do with “healing,” or with having an ability to calm people. She also compared me to a shaman. I did not know what a shaman was or what she meant, so I asked a Native American friend who knew me from Twelve Step meetings. He said that he saw a correlation between my behaviors in social circles and those of a shaman.
A shaman? That makes more sense than me being like a frog. I don’t jump around bumping my behind on the ground, and my ego says I look better than any frog, but, to be fair to the frogs, I realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some little frogs are cute, too, so …. who am I to say? At any rate, I don’t think I would cause warts if I urinated on someone. Maybe I’ll try giving someone a golden shower one day just to see if warts pop up. Then again, I think that is a myth about frogs causing warts, otherwise, I’d be covered in them because numerous frogs have relieved themselves on my hands throughout the years, being the frog-napping type of fellow I am.
AN OCTOPUS ON THE RUN: On June 6, 2015, I watched “Life Story” on the Discovery channel. It amazed me to see a flounder stalking an octopus. The narrator said that flounders will snatch a meal by biting off one of an octopus’s tentacles.
The octopus crept along the ocean floor to stay ahead of its stalker. Each time the octopus got so far ahead, the flounder readjusted the distance by moving in closer, and then I watched the octopus pick up a half of a coconut shell. It amazed me to see the octopus wrap its tentacles around the half-shell and ease across the ocean floor with it in tow. The flounder continued to stalk its prey.
As some may know, animals and other forms of life do things to make themselves larger when threatened by a predator, the same thing that some experts suggest we do to ward off an attack by a wild animal. I thought that was why the octopus climbed on top of the coconut shell and walked away with it. Maybe that was why it initially picked it up.
Well, moments later, the octopus found the other half of the coconut shell and climbed inside the first half, and then used the second half to encase itself inside of to roll down a slope in the ocean floor to escape its predator. Mission accomplished. An escape by a coconut shell saved the octopus. The flounder discontinued its pursuit of an octopus tentacle as its meal.
See, everything wants to be free; frogs, octopuses, and humans, like those in the recent New York prison escape. It is in our nature to want to be free.
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK: No, not the 1981 movie by that title. Prison escapees causing a siege throughout the state. The most popular criminals in America right now are Richard Matt and David Sweat. Both escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York on June 6, 2015, by using power tools to cut through cell walls and a sewer pipe to leave the prison. Both are convicted murderers and were scheduled to serve the rest of their lives in prison. Over 800 local and federal officials search for them as I type, as well as several other law enforcement agents and concerned citizens across America.
Joyce Mitchell, a female prison worker faces charges for her involvement in their escape. She provided hacksaw blades, drill bits, and chisels to help, and was supposed to be their getaway driver, but changed her mind and didn’t show up, which left them to fend for themselves. Personally, I feel that her not showing up “may” have saved her life. The escapees may or may not have decided to kill her after their escape. Many prisoners do terrible things out of desperation. When on escape, I believe it increases the risk of doing so to avoid going back to the confinement that they hate.
I understand Matt and Sweat’s actions. In 1981 I escaped from a close security prison in the State of Georgia, which I wrote about in “The Price of Change,” available in my magazine (ESSAYS & MORE STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN (https://www.straightfromthepen.com) and as an eBook (“Fence Rows & The Price of Change”) from my author’s page at Smashwords.com (https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/WayneMrDowdy)).
The NY escape was considerably different than the one I was involved in, where several of us escaped by taking control of the control room to open the doors before we ran and climbed fences. Two fellow escapees were shot during the process but not fatally. I ran through woods with helicopters and hound dogs in pursuit, and then stole a car, ran through two roadblocks, and was back in prison within a few hours. I paid a heavy price for those actions and would have done the same thing many years ago when I started this sentence in 1988, but I am really grateful that I did not. If I had done so, my life would have ended and I may have harmed others before that happened.
My prayer is that the escapees do not harm anyone, and if caught, that they do not get killed in the process, if that is what they want. In situations such as theirs, death often seems to be a better alternative than returning to prison for the rest of their lives. I know. I felt that way before I was arrested on August 18, 1988, and did not plan for it to happen the way it did. I planned on a big shootout with the cops, etc., etc. It was only by the grace of God that things didn’t work according to my plan, and that I did not commit suicide after my arrest. I thought about it real hard but hung on due the love I had for my family and for other more nefarious reasons.
As long as we are alive there is hope. The hope of one day living a better life has kept me alive throughout all these dark years. Now I can see a bright shining light as the day of my release moves closer each day, and that makes me grateful.
waynedowdy@straightfromthepen.com
Teaching Cons New Tricks–Creative Writing & Q.A. Apprenticeship Program
(Reprint Permission Granted by the Author)
Teaching Cons New Tricks–Creative Writing & Q.A. Apprenticeship Program
THE ART OF CREATIVE WRITING CLASS: When a person is searching for a theme for an article, short story or novel, some writing professionals suggest that writers take a real life situation and ask “What If?” For instance, what would the U.S. economy be like now if President Obama had been white and his Congress had approved the same economic plan to rebuild the economy, as that of President Roosevelt’s, whose plan Congress endorsed to bring the Nation out of the Great Depression? What if an impoverished person sat in a creative writing class, inside of a prison classroom, and then wrote a million seller, and never returned to prison after release? Miracles happen!
What if that person simply learned to do something constructive that changed the direction of his or her life? That would be priceless! That is my hope for the students who participate in the Art of Creative Writing class, held for two hours, one night per week, in the education department at the Federal Correctional Institution, in Edgefield, South Carolina. This is the same education department I wrote about in my essay, “Fighting for Rights to Write”; published by PrisonEducation.com in Feb. 2014; posted on straightfromthepen.wordpress.com in March 2015. I was poised and ready to battle in federal Court to defend my First and Fifth Amendment rights to occupy my time constructively by using an AlphaSmart word processor to type my manuscripts for publication, and other forms of writings for reasons other than sending documents to a court, as other federal institutions permit. (Another battle may be looming in a similar fight to write.)
A fellow writer and friend, Jeffery P. Frye (aka Professor Frye), initiated the class by working with the Supervisor of Education. Once the class had been approved, then he invited me and another friend and budding author, S.G. Garwood, to sit in and offer assistance to the aspiring writers. Garwood is nearing completion of a historical fiction novel, The Last Confederate Coin, which is already receiving praise from Civil War buffs (view his writing samples and his magnificently designed webpage at http://www.thelastcharlestonconfederate.weebly.com).
The results of this adventure are yet to be seen, but I feel confident that everyone in the classroom will benefit, including me. As a fellow prisoner and someone who is concerned about the insane recidivism rates in the United States, my hope for everyone involved in the class is for them to be blessed with freedom and success, whether that success be as an author, or through some other method where the discipline learned through becoming a writer assists them in their quest to live a better life and not return to prison.
To succeed as an author requires discipline, something most of us lacked before coming to prison, and may lack now. Maybe writing will become more than just putting words on paper. Personally, I wrote my way into learning how to live a new life by journaling on a daily basis, so I know from experience that reading and writing has the power to change lives. Words pack a punch, whether written or spoken, words have the power to change or destroy lives. I choose my words carefully and hope the ones I select affect a positive change.
Professor Frye blogs about the Art of Creative Writing class on bankblogger.weebly.com and murderslim.com/BankRobbersBlog. He labels me and S.G. Garwood as Adjunct Professors, and wrote in his #creativeconvicts (blog), “Wayne (aka Adjunct Professor Dowdy) was challenged on the proper use of an adjective in relation to a plural verb. Wayne claimed he was right, while the other guy claimed he was wrong. Things got a little tense there for a few minutes, and as they had a spirited debate, I wondered if Adjunct Professors carried shanks. Wayne finally went to the library and found a GED textbook to prove his point, and to show that he was right. He was. That’s why he’s my adjunct.”
Professor Frye is a gifted writer who tells a great story and is one who usually makes me laugh anytime I read what he writes, especially his blogs. He also types faster than a woodpecker pecking on a tree, which pays off when paying five-cents per minute to use the Corrlinks computer system we use to email these blogs to someone to post on our behalf. I type slower than he does, but still love to write, and have my own style of writing: I’m a more serious, in-your-face type of writer, who often writes on topics to inform, inspire, motivate or educate, more so than to make readers laugh or cry, even though I sometimes do that too. In the classroom setting, as well as in my personal endeavors, I “seek” to find the truth, and usually succeed, whether that truth concerns a historical fact; the proper use of a word; discussing a verb that becomes a present participle after adding “ing” (e.g., “break” versus “breaking”); so that the ex-verb then functions as a noun, not-so-commonly known as a gerund.
Either way, I always want to know the correct answer and will sometimes go to extremes to find it; whether I do or don’t, I still want to find the answer and will continue my quest to do so, long after the thrill of debate has gone. I am also known for calling it as I see it, politically correct or not. I am not. That’s just not me, even though I do try to be considerate of another person’s feelings, I am not one who sprinkles sugar on a pile of poop to claim it is ice cream.
Please pardon my frankness, and my bizarre metaphor, but this is Straight From the Pen, not the Pentagon, and my use of that metaphor certainly paints a picture to stick on a wall, not soon to be forgotten. Perhaps the students in the Art of Creative Writing class will be more selective and less aggressive with words; however, since we are in prison … some may be more vicious with words than an overzealous prosecutor in a murder case. We’ll see.
QUALITY ASSURANCE APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM: As I wrote in my “Vacation In Prison” blog on April 10, 2015, I work for the Federal Prison Industries, Inc. (UNICOR). I am a tutor in their Quality Assurance Apprenticeship Program, and have been since its inception in 2006. None of the graduates released back into society have become recidivists. That deserves recognition by all standards. I mainly teach Grammar & Writing Skills and other education-related fields of study, as well as helping the students to learn certain aspects about the Quality Management System, which meets the required standards for certification under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 9001: 2008 Requirements.
The Quality Assurance Manager realized its importance for the students to learn. He put an emphasis on teaching these students more about ISO principles than the previous students had to learn before becoming certified Quality Assurance Inspectors, who may be able to get out of prison and obtain a position as a Q.A. Manager by going to college to take a few more associated courses. One inmate who learned ISO in prison got out and got a job as a Project Manager for a reputable company. Dreams do come true.
The Apprenticeship program recently expanded to having six students enrolled. I create tests that all of them hate but learn more about the subject by the time they complete their assignments. As in Kindergarten, the only grade I give anyone is an “S” or “U” for satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Basically, the students are given course material and then turned loose to learn all they can. If someone fails to earn an “S” … I take the time to help him learn what he is missing or failing to understand about the procedure or process being taught.
Essentially, one has to refuse to do the assigned task to receive a “U,” which is then up to the Q.A. Manager to decide on where to go from there. Most apply themselves to learn what is being taught. This is a voluntary program, and the only one with anything to loose is the student, so each of them usually does what is required, even though some do complain about the level of difficulty in my tests. I give them tough love because I care enough to challenge their intellectual capacity to get them used to using their head for more than plotting crimes against humanity or for storing effects from illicit substances.
If the person doesn’t want to learn, I tell them not to waste my time. For the eager ones who really want the prize, I offer to teach them “Advanced Grammar & Writing Skills.” In that part of the program I teach the apprentice technical writing so that he will be qualified to write instructional documents; e.g., manufacturing & inspection instructions, quality manuals, policies and procedures. In other words, something more than simply inspecting a product. Technical writing is a very lucrative craft, which I have years of experience at doing in UNICOR. In 1997 I began writing job procedures for constructing missile cables, remote area lighting systems, power distribution boxes, army tank wiring harnesses, and other military products. I literally earn pennies in comparison to what I would earn doing so as a freelance technical writer in society, but at least I have obtained enough knowledge at doing it to share the wealth with others who may one day get to use those skills for the betterment of society.
A FIGHT TO REDUCE RECIDIVISM: Education is a proven method of reducing recidivism, as shown in my essay, “Education, the Prisoner, and Recidivism”; published by PrisonEducation.com in May of 2013; posted March 2015 on straightfromthepen.wordpress.com. For both subjects above, writing is an instrumental process, and is one that allows participants to occupy their time in a constructive manner, instead of running around creating drama by plotting on how to get out to commit more crimes and continue to feed the American Mass Incarceration Machine.
Shouldn’t prison administrators want their inmates to be learning something to prepare them for successful reentry into society? Don’t the designated keepers owe it to the public to provide prisoners with needed tools for preparation of release back into society; especially, those who want to learn something so that they can increase their chance of success upon release? Who wants prisoners to reenter society and collect new victims? Don’t we owe it to each other to help the disadvantaged transcend to another level? I feel we do. I do my part, and am sad to say that I often struggle to get support from the staff to do what needs to be done to help my peers get out and not return. That includes having something as simple as regularly held Twelve-Step meetings, or having ample time to use educational tools or equipment needed to help prepare the prisoner for the challenges that lie ahead. Read “No Sympathy” posted on straightfromthepen.wordpress.com for some staggering statistics on recidivism to grasp the seriousness of the situation. I am sure it will leave you wondering why a prisoner must struggle to help others avoid becoming a recidivist.
The looming battle concerns the possibility of the education department not allowing writers and inmates to use the AlphaSmarts for creative and other forms of writing, other than preparing documents to mail to the courts. The use of such a device that has the potential of preventing some prisoners from becoming a recidivist seems worthwhile. If possible, many of us prisoners would buy or rent AlphaSmarts or other similar products to constructively occupy our time and attempt to learn a skill to rehabilitate ourselves. I suggested the same but it fell on deaf ears. Imagine that!
The cost of an AlphaSmart word processor and the associated costs of supplies, cannot compare to the cost of a recidivist. On March 9th, 2015, the B.O.P. Director reported in the Federal Register that the FY 2014 Annual Determination of Average Cost of Incarceration was $30,619.85 per year/$83.89 per day. Based on those numbers, the cost of providing educational tools and equipment is a cost effective measure–money well-spent–an investment far less expensive than re-incarcerating a person for multiple years or possibly for the rest of their lives. The cost of recidivism is human lives.
Follow me on Twitter: @DowdyFromThePen
[Update: AlphaSmarts were removed for the general population two-years later after the Supervisor of Education changed. This section modified and address removed due to release from prison on August 28, 2018]
Email: waynedowdy@straightfromthepen.com.
Purchase my books & essays from my book page on https://www.straightfromthepen.com or https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/WayneMrDowdy or from your favorite bookseller.
From Where Do Writers Root
From where do you root? Many people want to know the roots of their family, evidenced by the success of such websites as Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. For authors who write autobiographies, biographies and other nonfiction genres, having correct, verifiable data, enhances their reputation with editors, and incorrect data may ruin or damage it. Who wants to waste time reading something written by an author who has proven to be unreliable? Even people who read fiction expect accuracy from the author writing about historical events or scenes based on actual places. Because of that, I added an “AUTHOR’S NOTE” to my novel (UNDER PRESSURE-MOTIVATIONAL VERSION by Mr. D.). After reading part of it, a prison guard said to me, “That is not correct. The B.O.P. does not have TASERs, and SORT wouldn’t have been the one to respond.” He then went on to explain which emergency response team would have responded to the situation I wrote about in a scene using my literary licenses. (Please go tohttps://www.smashwords.com/books/view/353812 to read my definition of literary licenses in the Author’s Note, which I only use when writing fiction.)
RESEARCH: Researching is important in any form of writing for publication. Using numbers and statistics to support a position or hypothesis makes a paper appear authentic and often keeps a reader interested: Writers get the numbers and statistics through research. When an author uses accurate data, the reader becomes more assured that he or she can trust and rely on what the author writes and that the author knows the subject matter. As most people should realize, all sources of information are not reliable; especially, the volumes of information now available at the touch of a few keystrokes on a computer. Numerous blogs and other forms of media contain incorrect information from unreliable sources, even some websites that the “Curious” frequent for medical information. Reliable sources are vital for a writer to succeed in the highly-competitive, nonfiction, magazine market. For instance, some editors will reject an article if Wikipedia is the source of information, since credentials are not required and a person may post information believed to be true but is not. (Wikipedia does contain a lot of good information for researchers to use.)
Seasoned writers search various sources to determine which information to use to effectively relay the message they want to convey to their readers. Several methods exist for finding information on most topics. Old School tactics include interviewing those with personal expertise in a field of study, or going to observe a process or event as it is being conducted, rather than sitting at a computer screen surfing the Deep Blue Web. By an author interviewing someone qualified to speak on the subject, or by watching and listening to learn, they may observe or detect something not mentioned in a written document or other source. Nevertheless, other methods of information gathering comes from reading reference books (almanacs, good dictionaries (biographical and geographical sections), encyclopedias, yearbooks, etc.), or books written by those knowledgeable on the subject; searching for related articles in periodicals (e.g., magazines, journals, newspapers); going to a library to speak with a librarian, or going online to search on-line catalogs and other on-line databases. The majority of librarians can offer additional advice on navigating the web or other sources for collecting information to use.
The Internet has become the main source of information in today’s world, but writers must beware of the source and check to see when the site was last updated, and whether anyone claims authorship and lists their qualifications for writing on the subject. Equally important is the domain name in the URL (the address of the computer). The domain name in the URL indicates the purpose or origin or the website. Here is a list and brief explanation of some meanings:
1) “.com” is commercial, usually trying to sell something;
2) “.gov” is a government site, which may help to update or inform people about events or activities, like bills pending in Congress, or other public information;
3) “.org” shows it is a non-profit organization (an NPO may be wholesome, or may not be, as some scams are operated under the guise of providing something worthwhile or for the betterment of society); and
4) “.edu” for education (probably the most reliable for information overall).
Even researching for family history can be difficult and misleading. Author Christina Hamlett makes a valid point in an article she wrote about researching, which mentioned obtaining information from Ellis Island Records: the information listed is based upon the interpretation of the port authorities who may have had to guess how to spell the name of an immigrant, and that some immigrants may have intentionally listed false information; e.g., changed names, marital status, or from where they came. She lists several valuable websites for authors to further the search beyond the typical websites that the majority of people will go to when searching from where they came. These sites allow anyone to dig deeper to find family roots or information about a person of interest:
Census Finder: www.censusfinder.com
Census Records: www.censusrecords.com
Cyndi’s List: www.cindislist.com/categories (select Genealogy)
Dead or Alive: www.deadoraliveinfo.com
Death Records Online: www.myheritage.com
Ellis Island Records: www.ellisislandrecords.org
ObituariesHelp: http://obituarieshelp.org
SearchSystems: http://publicrecords.searchsystems.net
United States Vital Records Information: http://vitalrec.com/index.html
“Consider the Source: Fact-Checking” by Christina Hamlett, Writer’s Guide 2014, $23.95, Writer’s Publications,www.writersbookstore.com. (Most links used in this article come from her well-written article.)
She also lists several websites for checking facts and historical data writers may want to use to verify the accuracy of their primary source of information for an article, blog, book, or essay. She cautions, “Whenever you decide to incorporate recent or historical dates, never rely 100 percent on your own memory.” Great advice! Memories fail and all human brains malfunction on occasion when storing and retrieving memories. Try these links for verifying data accumulated during your research:
FactCheck.org: www.factcheck.org
Politico: www.politico.com
Snopes: www.snopes.com/politics/politics.asp
ScamBusters: www.scambusters.org
The Fact Checker: www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker
PolitiFact: www.politifact.com
For history:
Historical Timeline: www.historicaltimeline.com
HyperHistory: www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html
Animated Atlas: www.animatedatlas.com/timeline.html
This Day in History: www.history.com/this-day-in-history
ROOTS OF WRITERS: Perhaps the roots of some writers run all the way back to Moses and the Ten Commandments and writers of the best selling book in history: the Bible. “The Gutenberg Bible … was the first major book printed in the West using movable type. It marked the start of the ‘Gutenberg Revolution’ and the age of the printed book in the West. …. Written in Latin, the Gutenberg Bible is an edition of the Vulgate, printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany, in the 1450s.” Wikipedia.org, updated 10/22/2014 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible). A copy did not reach North America until 1847; available for public viewing at the New York Public Library. The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible occurred in 1978 for $2.2 million, and is now kept in Stuttgart (Clausen Books Gutenberg Bible Census (http://www.clausenbooks.com/gutenbergcensus.htm). The estimated value of a complete copy ranges between $25-35 million. The author of that one has bragging rights! Too bad he could not stick around to see the fruits of his labor manifest into something so valuable and miraculous.
For another notable piece of history about the printed Word, according to the Dictionary of Modern English, Wordsworth Edition, 2005, “[t]he edition of the Bible known as the Authorized Version ([was] first published in 1611 under the aegis of King James I) ….” Lots of readers prefer the King James Version of the Bible, or other variations of it. Going back farther than that, Socrates (ca 470-399 B.C.) and Plato (ca 428-348 (or 347 B.C.)) also made their mark in history long after they had lived, with their volumes of published philosophical ideals taught in the academic arena to this day.
The devoted and meticulous writers are a special breed of writers. All writers are not created equal: It takes an internal overdrive and determination to produce exceptional prose. To quote Brandon Royal from THE LITTLE RED WRITING BOOK, $16.99, Writer’s Digest Books (2004), “Most people hate reworking their writing. It is human nature. The pressure and agony of writing is one reason why alcohol has been humorously dubbed ‘the occupational hazard of professional writers.’ It is not the writing per se, but the rewriting and redrafting process that can drive a person to drink. Worse is the reality of knowing before you began to write — no matter how well you write — your writing will require revision.” For instance, before I began writing this little piece of writing, I knew it would take revising several times to get it “close” to the way I truly wanted it before submitting it for publication. What I did not know was that I would be revising it for at least twenty-times (I lost counts days ago), long past the date I had planned for its completion. If I had not stopped drinking many years ago, so I could grow up and become somebody, I would have probably gotten drunk and clicked to send several days ago, rather than to continue to wrestle with the words on this computer screen. Knowing I will never get it to the level of perfection I prefer, I will eventually just say well-enough, and click send to be done with it so I can move on to the next project. So much is the life of the writer. We write and write and write until some of us run into the occupational hazard known common to our craft. Jack London was one of the best writers around, but history tells that it was that occupational hazard that lead him to his end; therefore, I need to keep a clear mind so I can write until I can’t write anymore. I’m a work in progress.
To wrap this collection of words back around to the same line of thinking that it began, as I learned writers should do, I conclude with this: Writer or not, does anyone truly know from where their roots run? In particular, all of those writers who write in the many different styles and genres, which include so many ideas and topics that no one could ever effectively count them all before something new popped out of some writer’s mind and onto the pages of a book or computer screen. Anyway, maybe some writers came from another planet or from some place far away; especially, in considering the plots and stories in books and movies these days that stretch the imagination. Who knows from where they came? ANSWER: Only those with a reliable source.
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Wayne T. Dowdy was first published under a pseudonym in 2003. Later on he decided to become a professional writer. He then took a college-accredited writing course through the Long Ridge Writers Group where he graduated in 2008. He has since been published numerous times in magazines and newsletters, mostly under a pseudonym. His most recent major projects include ESSAYS & MORE STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN (https://www.createspace.com/5040976), and the novel UNDER PRESSURE-MOTIVATIONAL VERSION by Mr. D. (https://www.createspace.com/4325313). Get the paperback versions at Amazon.com, CreateSpace.com, and other online and offline bookstores. For a limited time, purchase an eBook of the essay collection by using Smashwords coupon code SP43N for a 75% discount off the $9.95 list price. Visit his author’s page at Smashwords.com (https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/WayneMrDowdy). Read more of his writings by adding “Wayne T. Dowdy” in your favorite search engine.
The Truth About Incarceration, Part II
Prisoners for profit, human lives a commodity? Imagine that. My life of crime made lots of politicians and investors very rich: it robbed me of life with my loved ones, including a wife and two children, not to mention the financial ruins caused by my actions. When I am released in 2019, I have to start all over at the age of sixty-two. My living quarters consists of a cell designed for one, housing two. Essentially, I live in a bathroom with another man. That is not exactly the way I planned for life to be, but it is what it is. I put myself in this situation by making bad choices. It didn’t have to be this way. According to a psychologist, who had reviewed results from a battery of aptitude and psychological test that I had taken for Georgia prison officials to determine my intellectual capacity, I could have been a doctor or lawyer. Maybe I could have been a politician capitalizing on prisons being built and by voting to be tough on crime. A lot of people profit from the Incarceration Industry in America. Thousands of men and women serve longer prison sentences because of the Corporate greed and the desire to increase the bottom line at the expense of other humans.
NO SYMPATHY: I am fifty-seven years old as I write and have spent most of those fifty-seven years in prison. On August 18, 1988, I began serving this 35-year federal sentence for driving a second getaway vehicle in an armed bank robbery and associated charges, one being “Abduction of a Person to Facilitate Commission of an Offense.” In a personal essay titled, “No Sympathy,” I wrote about certain aspects of the crime; however, that essay serves a greater purpose. I want the public to see where billions of their tax dollars go. I use my story to show the effect of incarceration and recidivism. ESSAYS & MORE STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN is my essay collection that contains several essays about various topics and experiences, but when I wrote No Sympathy, I wrote it with the hope of helping to somehow change the failed criminal justice system. Due to its purpose, I asked the publisher to make it and a few other ones into separate eBooks for $0.99 each. (Purchase it from my author’s page athttps://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/WayneMrDowdy.) The essay shows data and parts of my history to prove you are reading writings from a man who the government has invested well over one-million dollars in. If you are an American taxpayer, you help pay for my incarceration. Maybe some of the politicians who have lined their pockets with cash by investing in prisoner commodities will reimburse you. I would if I could, but I am broke so suing me won’t do any good either. Sorry!
RECIDIVISM: From August 28, 1978, until August 1, 1985, I served state time for robbing three drug stores at gunpoint and stealing a car. While in, I picked up additional charges for escape and mutiny in a penal institution. I wrote about those events in “The Price of Change,” also in the essay collection. Four of those years were spent at the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, GA. The feds said it was the most violent prison in the United States in 1982 while I was there. I witnessed prison staff creating racial trouble in an attempt to win a lawsuit (Guthrie v. Evans). Prisoners died as a result of their games. Guthrie had filed the lawsuit because of the racism, brutality, and unconstitutional living conditions at the prison before I arrived. The guards created the racial issues in an attempt to convince the courts that we were animals and that they needed their guns and batons to control us. I know because I was privilege to legal documents due to my status as a representative in the lawsuit. I have also seen staff use the same plots in the federal prison system while I was at the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta (also deemed to be the most violent prison in the United States while I was there) and U.S.P. Pollock in Louisiana. The point being that prisoners are no more than pawns in their games. I made it over three-years before I was arrested in 1988–to be exact, three-years and seventeen days after my release from a halfway house in Atlanta, Georgia. By staying out over three-years, I dodged being one of the typical prisoners caught in the more common 3-year recidivism studies. A different study came out in April 2014 that covered a five-year span: it revealed staggering statistics on recidivism from 2005-2010. [1] An alarming rate of 82.1% of property offenders, 76.9% of drug offenders, and 73.6% of public order offenders returned with new charges within the five-year study period. The numbers make clear that previous (and current) methods of punishment and practices have not yielded favorable results, that is, except for those who profit from high-incarceration rates: things couldn’t have been or be better for them. Because of the explosive prison population caused by draconian sentencing policies and increased punishments for crimes, pushed by those with an ulterior motive, the situation got out of control.
RE-ENTRY & RECIDIVISM: Former Attorney General Eric Holder began taking action to reduce the prison growth rate and population: 1) he changed prosecution policies that slowed the flow of federal offenders into prison, and 2), he pushed the agenda for re-entry initiatives to relieve the financial impact of incarceration through a reduction in recidivism. Focusing on providing prisoners with re-entry services should reduce recidivism by helping ex-offenders find employment, and by helping them receive treatment for drug, alcohol, and or, mental health issues. From my observations, very few prisoners receive help for such issues while in prison and that alone increases recidivism. I have not seen many prison administrations truly concerned about providing prisoners with opportunities that increases their likelihood of success upon release.
DETAINMENT FOR PROFITS: Sadly, for-profit-prison lobbyists spread millions on state and federal legislatures to keep prison populations high, or to otherwise defeat bills introduced to lower the mass incarceration rates in America. “Detainment is a lucrative trade.” [3] The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) members and for-profit prison representatives write bills for politicians to introduce that increases prison sentences through techniques such as changing sentencing guidelines, increasing criminal penalties, or creating new laws. Those actions counter any initiatives introduced to decrease prison populations by giving prisoners more time off for good behavior; re-instating federal parole, or any other bills that, if implemented, would reduce the profits of those with a vested interest in high incarceration rates. ALEC members sometimes provide alternative bills for their supporters. “Whether the issue is guns, tort reform, immigration, sentencing guidelines, or private prisons, ALEC provides a legislator with a committee-ready one-size-fits-all bill and a playbook to pass it.” [2]
GUIDELINE CHANGES: Other measures taken to undo the effect of previous political actions came from amendments to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines to reduce sentences for drug offenders; especially, crack cocaine related offenses. The Sentencing Commission is a bipartisan committee whose recommendations stand unless Congress stops them.
POLITICAL INFLUENCE: The funding for the cost of incarceration comes from the taxpayers so why should politicians be concerned about its cost? Especially when their votes for “Tough on Crime” bills gets them re-elected and fills their pockets with cash. And, not just their pocket, the pockets and purses of those who invest in the Prison Industry (companies who build prisons; those who provide goods and services for their operation, construction, maintenance; those manufacturing or selling security items; e.g., fences, electronic gadgets, weapons, riot gear, and other tactical equipment pushed for security to protect the public from approximately 2.3 million prisoners held in the United States, alone). Private prison companies grew by convincing those in power that it was more cost effective to house prisoners in privately ran prisons than it was to house them in public prisons. The data did not always support their claims. [6] In order for private prisons to profit, corporate owners reduce the number of staff, the amount of staff training hours, and pay lesser wages and benefits to their employees. In 2011, compared to state correctional officers, Correctional Corporation of America (CCA), required an average of 240 less training-hours. The less-trained staff salaries were 50% less than those of typical state correctional officers. [3] The lack of staff and inadequate training sometimes resulted in deaths of prisoners and guards, which the 2014 Office of Inspector General report noted in reference to the privately managed Federal Bureau of Prisons (B.O.P.) contract facilities. From other things I have read, only a minimal amount of conditions were required for those private companies to gain lucrative contracts. Since the latest finding by the O.I.G., B.O.P. Director, Charles Samuels, Jr., who is changing things, approved a program statement to govern such facilities. [4] Personally, though, I cannot believe that political connections have not influenced the number of contract beds the B.O.P. uses to house its prisoners. That seem apparent by the fact that in 1980, 12-years before former B.O.P. Director, Michael Quinlan (see next para.) went to CCA, only 2% of the B.O.P. prisoner population was kept in contract facilities. Now with two B.O.P. directors into private prisons, two-percent grew into nineteen and a half percent.
CORPORATE INFLUENCE: “ALEC is a corporate-funded corporate bill mill cross-dressing as an association of state legislatures.” [2] In 2011, ALEC claimed 250 corporations and special interest groups as private sector members. “According to ALEC promotional material, each year member lawmakers introduce an average of 1,000 … pieces of legislation nationwide, 17% of which are enacted.” [5] One member corporation being CCA–the nation’s largest for-profit private prison company (GEO Group is the second largest for-profit prison and is also an ALEC member). [8] Two former B.O.P. Directors went to work for CCA after leaving the B.O.P. under unfavorable circumstances. Harley Lappin “retired” from the B.O.P. after his arrest on a Driving Under the Influence charge in May 2011. He is CCA’s executive vice president and the company’s Chief Corrections Officer. J. Michael Quinlan “retired” in 1992 after a male B.O.P. employee filed a lawsuit and claimed Quinlan had sexual assaulted and sexually harassed him in a motel room during a business trip. He settled the lawsuit out of court. He works as CCA’s senior vice president who oversees CCA’s quality assurance program. Other government officials have equally migrated to private sector companies and carried insider-information with them. [7] I’m sure that “insider-information” and political connections helped such companies flourish at the expense of the millions of Americans confined in jails and prisons.
Some people have profited from laws and policies that increased prison sentences, many others like me have stayed in prison longer than we would have without those governing factors, which were based on the “bottom lines.” In the meantime, though, I still hope to one day have a healthy relationship with my children, but the miles of highways and barbwire fences that separates us makes it difficult. Things will change. Look for another article on “The Truth About Incarceration.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Durose, Matthew, R., Cooper, Alexia D., and Snyder, Howard N. NCJ 244205, Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 30 States: Patterns from 2005-2010. U.S. Dep’t. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Statistics, April 2014.
[2] Dubose, Lou. How to Pass Bills and Influence Legislators. The Washington Spectator, May 15, 2011.
[3] Handley, Joel. Divesting From Private Prisons. IN THESE TIMES, August 2011.
[4] Program Statement 7740.02, Oversight of Private Secure Correctional Facilities. November 21, 2014.
[5] Hodia, Beau. Publiscopy Exposed. IN THESE TIMES, August 2011.
[6] Austin, James and Coventry, Garry. NCJ 181249, Emerging Issues of Privatized Prisons, Bureau of Justice, Feb. 2011.
[7] Anti-Private Prison Group Rips Revolving Door for Federal Employees After CCA Hires Former BOP Director, Prison Legal News, July 2011.
[8] Hodia, Beau. Corporate Con Game. IN THESE TIMES, June 21, 2010.
Fighting For The Right To Write
I am in a battle that should not be: with the head of the Education Department and prison authorities over my right to type book manuscripts and other non-legal documents, such as business or personal letters, college course assignments, resumes, etc. (Technically, if something is not illegal, it would actually be “legal.” ) Imagine that — a prisoner fighting his keepers so he can do something to constructively occupy his time. By the way, this is not a national issue, since the majority of prison administrators encourage prisoners to constructively occupy their time by learning new skills, trades, getting a better education, reading, as well as writing business and personal letters to prepare for release from prison.
Writing can be instrumental in the life of a prisoner who needs to establish contacts within the community to help secure employment, housing, and to build family and community ties. Furthermore, federal officials consider an inmate’s family and community ties as a factor in determining the custody and security score of inmates. The staff use that score to determine the level of security necessary to manage the inmate; e.g., placement in low, medium, or high security facilities, each of which have different programs available for inmates to use, and different management techniques for staff to follow.
What I find insane about the situation, is that the Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons, Mr. Charles E. Samuels, Jr., encourages his 216,000* inmates to “[p]repare for a successful return to the community.” In his December 9, 2013, MEMORANDUM TO ALL BUREAU INMATES, he wrote, “Our long standing approach that ‘Reentry Begins on the First Day of Incarceration’ is as true today as it has ever been in the past. The Bureau of Prisons provides and searches for new opportunities to help you be as productive as possible while in prison, preparing to return to your family and community as a productive, law abiding citizen.” I believe he means what he wrote. The sad part is that some of those he entrusts to carry out his mission are not on the same page, as many prison officials are stuck in the “old mentality” and would revert to the days of putting prisoners in sweat boxes and beating them, if the laws had not changed to deter them from doing it.
According to the Bureau of Prisons Program Statement P.5350.27, Inmate Manuscripts, dated 07/27/99, which was written to “[e]ncourage inmates to use their leisure time for creative writing …..” In other words, the Program Statement authorizes me to “[p]repare a manuscript for private use or for publication while in custody without staff approval.”
My use of the program statement to support my opposition against the new policy was unsuccessful, never mind the fact that that is one of many program statements that changed because a judge determined that the former program statement contained unconstitutional provisions that violated an inmate’s First Amendment right to the United States Constitution (freedom of speech). Their response was that it does not specify that I can type one, only that I can, so I pointed out that it is an industry standard and known that all manuscripts submitted for publication have to be typed, not handwritten. Personally, I believe the recent change implemented here by the Supervisor of Education and the Associate Warden of Industries, Education, and Recreation, has some root in my speaking out against the system in some of my published works: “Education, the Prisoner, and Recidivism” by Wayne T. Dowdy (www.PrisonEducation.com); UNDER PRESSURE-MOTIVATIONAL VERSION by Mr. D. (Midnight Express Books, $9.99 @ Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com (https://www.createspace.com/4325313)). Whatever the case may be, I will continue the fight for the right to write, because it is not just about me. Other prisoners deserve the same privilege and may not have the skills or courage needed to fight Goliath with pens and paper or keys on a keyboard. I do.
Retaliation against those of us who speak out is common, even if not as common as it once was, it still occurs. Doing the right thing often has risks and consequences. Frankly, I cannot allow the fear of possible retaliation to stop me from doing what I feel I should do. Since I am a writer with a vested interest in the situation, what kind of man would I be to not use the skills I have that are needed to possibly resolve the issue? Anyway, I am 30,000-words into the sequel (UNKNOWN INNOCENCE) and have people waiting for its completion, so, I would like to deliver on my promise of putting it in their hands in the near future. I also enjoy occupying my free time writing and helping others learn to write novels, essays, and short stories.
I plan to be victorious in the battle of the fight for the right to write and will not give up until I have exhausted all available options, including bringing a civil action law suit against them, better known as a Bivens Action, when federal officials are being sued in their personal capacities. I do hope to report later that the matter was resolved without a long drawn out legal battle. Wish me luck. Thanks!
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*Based on B.O.P. population report as of January 2014. The B.O.P. inmate population has declined, which just recently occurred, so some of the political moves initiated by Attorney General Eric Holder may now be working; e.g., instructing his underlings to be less zealous in the methods and techniques used in the prosecution of non-violent drug offenders. (The total inmate population was at 218,849 on November 21, 2013. The total population includes all of those held in private facilities, jails, halfway houses, etc.) The inmate population decline may be due to the prison growth rate slowing, rather than more prisoners being released through changes in programs like Compassionate Release and Reduction In Sentences, which was revised on August 12, 2013, to include additional categories for elderly inmates eligible for a compassionate release or a reduction in sentence. Another category added for eligible inmates are those who have young children, whose caretaker may now be in poor health, and the inmate is the only other person left to care for the child.
Social Media for Writers
[January 11, 2019: In the future I will update this blog post to make it current, now that I am a free man and am able to do the necessary research to make the content more useful to those of you who wish to improve your social media experience.]
I am sending this out to provide what I hope to be helpful information for interested persons, or for anyone willing to share the information with a new or aspiring writer, who will capitalize on the following social media outlets: Wattpad, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook Fan Pages, Blogs & Press Releases. Readers and social media socialites may equally find something helpful. Feel free to share this with others.
WATTPAD
Wattpad is the social networking site for writers and readers that provides an outlet for writers to post their writings for readers to read for free. Check it out. Wattpad recently started offering users the possibility to raise funds for their projects, like Kickstarter.
Twitter limits messages to 140-characters but has continued to grow in the fast paced world and seems to be a must for many who want to be noticed, as most writers and celebrities do. Mark Haverstock says, “Twitter caters to both the busy and the attention-challenged, with a 140-word maximum microblogging format.” (See Tumblr data for more from Haverstock.) These are links to get you started:
http://michaelhyatt.com/the-beginners-guide-to-twitter.html
https://support-twitter.com/articles/100990-signing-up-with-twitter#
http://inkygirl.com/a-writers-guide-to-twitter
http://www.mitaliblog.com/2009/08/getting-started-on-twitter-quick-guide.html
TUMBLR
According to the Writer’s Guide to 2014 ($23.95, Writer’s Institute Publications), in “Stepping Into the World of Social Media” by Mark Haverstock, “Tumblr is a social media site where users can share anything and everything–blog text, pictures, videos, music files, links, and more. … Tumblr is also chock full of inspiration. You can find anything from full-length blog posts, to poems, awe-inspiring pictures, music and links, to great sites all on this one social media resource. Tags allow you to give your posts a little extra exposure, so you can share them not only with people who follow you, but others who check out those tag threads–definitely a feature worth taking advantage of.” All links come from the same source, except for those in the last section (Blogs & Press Releases). The article lists these three associated links for Tumblr:
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Tumblr-Account
http://www.tumblr.com/register
http://digitalsherpa.com/setting-up-your-tumblr-account-and-getting-started
FACEBOOK FAN PAGES
Most writers will probably benefit from having a Facebook Fan Page, along with their own personal pages on Facebook, which after creating a Fan Page, would conceivably benefit by letting their friends know about their Fan Page to gain more exposure. (I recently read that writers should not use their personal Facebook page for marketing their book, since people who sign on as friends are more interested in the writer’s personal life. It is supposedly okay for the writer to write about events in their life, how these events relate to their writing career or the book, but not to use the personal page as a sales platform.) As a writer who cannot access these sites due to being in prison, and thus cannot use the available tools for marketing books and writings as most writers do, I can attest to the difficulties in generating readers and customers for self-published materials by not having the social media forum I would otherwise have if able to access those sites. I have the skills and the technical knowledge to create web pages, blogs, etc.; however, I cannot actively engage my reading audience through blogging or posting my writings on a website, because I have to depend on others for connecting with the outside world, and none of the people I am currently involved with have the time or know-how to do what I need. (I am still in the process of finding ways to do all of the above.) Here is the info for creating a Fan Page:
https://www.facebook.com/about/pages
Ten-Step quick start: http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Facebook-Fan-Page
Detailed instructions: http://computer-howstuffworks.com/internet/tips/how-to-make-fan-page-on-facebook.htm
Here are some writers’ Fan Pages you may view for ideas on design and content:
Stephenie Meyer: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephenie-Meyer/108380102517046?fref=ts (fan page)
John Green: http://www.facebook.com/JohnGreenfans?fref=ts
E.J. James: http://www.facebook.com/ELJamesAuthor
Gretchen Rubin: http://www.facebook.com/GretchenRubin
BLOGS & PRESS RELEASES
Two free blog sites are WordPress (www.wordpress.com) and Blogspot Platform (www.blogger.com). Since I see it used most often, I suspect that WordPress is the best choice. Both have templates and other accessories to help the writer set up their blog. Blogs are a must have social media platform for the aspiring writer to succeed at getting noticed and getting the word out. Some may choose to set up the blog to interact directly with their followers, while others may be too busy for that type of communication with their fans and, instead, elect to post sample chapters from a novel and post survey questions to engage their audience; e.g., which scene the reader liked most, who is their favorite character, what would they like to see happen, etc. By posting chapters in advance of completing the book, the writer is able to arouse interest in their product and have customers waiting to purchase it upon release.
For those who have a book release, try PRLOG (www.prlog.org), which is a free press release distribution service. Good luck. Wayne T. Dowdy (waynedowdy@StraightFromThePen.com).
STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN 