April 25, 2024
Note: After sending a slightly different version into the federal system to those who subscribe to my Corrlinks emails, I posted this on my other website by the same name with a different URL: StraightfromthePen.com
My busy life has prevented me from taking the time to send in a Corrlinks Message to the many Corrlinks subscribers I have. Today, I made myself stop long enough to complete a message I began on April 16, 2024, while driving to work. My hope in posting this Corrlinks message on here is to encourage or inspire some of the many returning citizens that I often write about, as I did on my most recent blog (https://straightfromthepen.com/2024/02/10/returning-citizens-are-misunderstood/). Feel free to send me a message if this helps. Thank you! Here is what I wrote:
A Message StraightFromthePen by Wayne T. Dowdy
I’ve been pressed for time about sending a message in for all of my Corrlinks’ contacts. I did the draft for this using the dictation function in Microsoft Word while driving to work. I drive sixty miles each direction right now but do plan on changing jobs.
It has been a long time since I have been in contact with anyone on the Inside but do want to share some words of encouragement for those near release or otherwise.
For those who know me, I walked out the doors on August 28, 2018, and went to the residential reentry center in Atlanta. Today I am free. But for those who did not know me, I served 30 years and 10 days before walking out the doors. Since then, after I found a job 11-months later, I maintained employment, saved money, and managed my affairs by staying clean (living without mind-altering substances). That allowed me to buy a house in September 2023. And that was a miracle!
I was an elevated risk for recidivism because of my long criminal history and addiction issues. Had I not quit drinking and drugging in1995 while at USP Atlanta, I wouldn’t have made it Out here, because of some of the things I encountered as a returning citizen, and because I would have done as I had always done, which is return to getting high and mismanaging my finances before reverting to crime to pay for my way of life.
To stay on this side of the fence, I will continue to do the next right thing and avoid doing what held me down for my whole life before I stopped, which was not being able to keep a needle out of my arm.
When I decided to change my life, I did not know if I would live long enough to become a free man because I was only seven years into a 35-year sentence, and almost 40-years old. But once I got rid of that bad habit, I began focusing on changing my behaviors, so that if the day came that I did get out of prison that I would be able to stay out.
On April 5th, 1995, I did my last shot of dope sitting in a cell at USP Atlanta and then began learning how to live a different life. I was blessed by having a drug treatment specialist and psychologists who devoted time to helping me learn how to change. Then I ultimately got involved with attending Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meeting, some of which I had to help get started in the system, which really helped me to learn how to live without using.
I know that with so many people seen getting out and returning that it becomes discouraging, and sometimes makes a person wonder if they can stay out if released, because of all of the stories told about how the ones who returned ended back up in prison for a host of reasons. That usually involves what someone else did or didn’t do, instead of accepting responsibility for what they did or did not do that could have kept them from returning.
Life can be tough Out here as it is on the Inside, and it is easy to go back to doing what we know best upon release when faced with what seems to be insurmountable odds of becoming successful. But since my release, I haven’t found it necessary to revert to my old ways of life. However, if I had not 1) learned how to live without drinking or using mind altering substance, and 2) learned to manage my money while on the Inside by basing my purchases on Wants versus Needs, I could not have saved enough money to buy my house, because I would have been in a lot of debt, as most American are these days. When buying the house, the loan officer told me that if I did not have ZERO debt, that I would not have qualified to buy the house because of the Income-to-Debt ratio used by financial institutions before deciding to loan large sums of money.
Now I’m in the home renovation process. The time I am putting into doing my own repairs consumes a lot of my time, which is one of many reasons I have not been able to find time to send in information to those of you on my contact list on this email or one of the others.
My point in writing the above is to encourage each of you to not give up because of the difficulties you are facing while there, whatever those difficulties may be. What we did in the Past prepared us for Today. What we do Today prepares us for Tomorrow if we are blessed by seeing another day.
To live the life I live Out here, I began preparing for it while on the Inside. Not much Out here has gone according to what I had planned before walking out the prison gates, but I have not allowed that to deter me from succeeding. The job I have does not pay much. So, I learned to supplement my income by buying goods and reselling them online, something else I haven’t had much time to do since buying the house.
I’ve worked for Goodwill industries of North Georgia since my release, and they don’t pay well. I’m only making $135 per day for working ten hours, but I’m managing what I have. I am officially retired and receive a small retirement check that helps to pay about two-thirds of my mortgage payment, so I am getting by with what I have to work with.
Another point is that I am making it work by making good decisions, at least on most days, because you know I am still human and make bad decisions on some days. I do well, and I don’t go out to rob or steal or commit crimes to survive. And if I can do it, so can you or anyone else. But remember to begin while in there, because if you cannot learn to do it while on the Inside, it will be harder to do it on the Outside.
Now, to boast a bit, I have YouTube channels (@WayneTDowdy3 and @StraightFromthePen and @WonderfulThingsDone), which I hope to one day turn into a profitable source of income. I do share about my experiences before prison, and after prison, but also provide a variety of content as I pave my way into a bright future.
Many of you know I started a website while on the Inside by paying my publisher to build it for about $500 (StraightfromthePen.com). Without going into the technical issues, I also have straightfromthepen.wordpress.com that I also use to post blogs on when time permits Some of you who read this know because I have posted a submission for you, or you’ve read some of the blogs, I sent in through Corrlinks that I wrote. In the future, I may begin accepting Submissions. I do NOT pay for any content I decide to publish.
Another possibility is that I offer some of the writers in there an opportunity to help me write other books or screenplays. Time will tell, but in the meantime, I want to say that though it has been a while since I sent in any messages, that it is not because I had forgotten you or what it is like to be on the Inside Looking Out. Speaking of such, I also have a “Space” on Quora.com named, “Life Inside and Out,” where I have shared a variety of content about life on the inside and life on the outside for returning citizens, the latter a category I hope each of you will one day have an opportunity to become.
If you respond to this message, I will respond when time permits, as I am pressed for time with me working a regular job and doing all the other things I do.
Make the day the best you can by staying positive and not losing hope because of the status quo. Things change.
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.
STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN 