Speaking for Those Who Can’t Speak for Themselves

“God continues to bless me and answer my prayers even in this warehouse of lost souls” – unknown

This blog contains essays about what life is like behind bars as a prisoner in the Michigan Department of Corrections.  Anecdotal stories and observations about crime, punishment and human nature.  Names, dates, and locations are not included because it was not good for your health to keep records like that in prison.  Even the suspicion that I was writing about my gang leader bunkie, one time, almost got me a severe beating. What is really important are the truths contained in these pages.  I am speaking out for the tens of thousands of others who don’t have the skill or ability to do so for themselves.

It would be easy to be bitter about the years I spent in prison, but instead I have chosen to put aside any personal agenda and use my experience as a professional auditor, a trained observer, to record a firsthand account of what life is like on the inside.  Writing has been both a healing process as I unburden myself, and an education as I compiled observations and facts that are shocking and disturbing in their scope and complexity.

This can by no means be considered exhaustive.  Even a life sentence would not be long enough to experience everything that happens in prison.  This is just my humble attempt to humanize those who have been de-humanized.  To bring to the public’s attention the waste and corruption that runs rampant in a critical branch of state government; and to help those who have loved ones in prison understand a little better what they’re going through.

If what you read is disturbing I apologize.  I tried to refrain from using graphic language except where it was necessary to convey meaning.  Prison is not a country club with prim and proper people.  On the other hand, if you are outraged by the failings of those entrusted with the responsibility of protecting society and are motivated to contact your state representatives in the legislature to demand better, then I have succeeded in raising awareness of an issue vitally important to our society as a whole.