I'd be a liar if I said I was totally proud of the man that I am today. I was gang banging for over 20 years and all I have to show for it is a 65 year prison sentence-- a sentence increased by the points garnered by my juvenile felonies when I was a 15 year old teenager. It's an uphill battle every day to get up and do what I know is right. But every student I help to pass their GED test, and every time I graduate another group of my peers from a class that I helped to design is another hard-fought battle won. Nobody said that life is easy, and nobody owes me anything. If somebody does owe though, it’s me. I owe it to my dad to start being a real man and start doing what is right for me and my kids just like he did. He deserves to know that his son isn't always going to be that ignorant gangbanger who speaks a foreign language with an urban accent. The Laotian man that I strive to become is the man that my dad has been my whole life: a man who not only loves his kids unconditionally, but shows it by working hard to provide for his family. I'm confident that I'll eventually get there in the meantime I have designed an Asian American Studies course, helped to found an Anti-Domestic Violence program, and organized multiple immigration, social justice, and youth outreach forums all available through the Asian Pacific Islanders Cultural Awareness Group
Felix
My imprisonment became unnecessary when I got sentenced to more years than I had been alive for. With no opportunity to redeem myself or right my wrongs, this only left me with a sense of despair and hopelessness. However, even with no opportunity of a second chance or to get an early release, I still made the effort to improve myself and others around me, while taking full responsibility over my own life. I eventually chose and found a path that is centered on rehabilitation, healing and redemption. However, I've learned that the journey to do that is a life-long process. As I became older in prison, my mind matured, the way I thought about my life changed. I realized I was just existing within prison, being institutionalized in many areas of my development. However, I could no longer accept a meaningless life, so I found myself wanting better for myself, searching for meaning and purpose for my life, even while incarcerated. That is when I began to take on personal responsibility over myself.
Bill
Eventually after doing a yearlong solitary confinement sentence I was tired of the same thing and promised myself that if no one would help me, I would do it myself. My time structure and DOC'S discriminatory practices towards people with long term sentences further reinforced the idea that rehabilitation for me was never in their plans. I began to study cultural identity and self-worth on my own which felt like a breath of fresh air. It led me to pursue education which in turn would lead me to take be a stakeholder in a prisoner led program created at Clallam Bay Corrections center by the Black Prisoners Caucus called T.E.A.C.H. (Taking Education And Creating History). What gravitated me to this transformational education platform was that all prisoners were valued, especially the ones who weren't offered the educational opportunities DOC would offer to people with shorter sentences. I started as a student and now have been facilitating classes for about 4 years and earned my Associates Degree. I realized that my life did have value.
Jarrod
Today I’m focused on working on my AA degree through correspondence courses, because I want to be prepared for the life that is waiting for me back in Mexico. [It] has been almost 17 years since I got ‘locked up,’ and I know that I’m a different person. I was a kid, now I am a mature man, and all I want is a chance to start my life. I want a wife and kids, my family. I want to help in creating real social change, help my community, not destroy it. The question is, is it necessary for me to spend another 10 years in prison? All I want to do is use my skills to help and succeed.
Marco
I will leave you with this, the future is in my hands and it’s my “choice” what I decide to do with it. I will be the voice and positive advocate I can be for the youth to come behind me. I have a goal and a plan. For our youth, all I ask is to be heard and we can come together as a society and noticed the abused hurt child who has been crying for a chance to be seen or heard. The year 2021 is my year for a call of action to change and dismantle the broken system for all people oppressed by injustice or some form of systematic oppression.
Tarryn
Since entering the system (day one) and staring down the road of my redemption and healing, I’ve acquired my G.E.D. and multiple vocational certificates. I have also invested my entire being in aiding and assisting my imprisoned community in a lot of circles (self-help groups) that educates, restores, affirms, sees, hears, and heals. These processes I am most proud of with regards to measuring change. I am a member of the Black Prisoners Caucus (BPC) and collective leadership structure; whereby we work closely and collaboratively with other groups whose causes and missions aligns with ours – this is also how I measure education and change.
Vincent
I am active in my prison community, and am using this time to give back. I have completed many of the classes here, including Non-Violent Communication, Bridges to Life (both as a student and as a small group leader), Redemption (as a facilitator on multiple occasions), Alternative to Violence Program, and have completed multiple AA degree level classes. I am one class away from graduating with my AA degree, while maintaining both Presidents and Deans Lists with an overall 3.87 GPA.
Augustus
I happened to participate in the Bridges to Life Program, where I discovered the real impact of crime, and not just violent crime, but all types of crime. The Bridges to Life program helped me to really understand how crime impacted its victims on many different levels. I realized it was not only violent crime that created various degrees of hardship on people; even identity/financial crimes imposed tremendous difficulty on those who were victims of these crimes as well as their families. I was under the false assumption that identity theft or financial crimes would ultimately have the money replaced, so no harm no foul. The Bridges to Life program showed me that that was the furthest thing from the truth.
Ralph
Every one of us have made mistakes in our lives. For some of us, the mistakes that we make can cause others to suffer. When I came to prison, I thought that I would do the suffering because of our separation from the community. But I quickly realized the victim’s and their family as well as my family and my loved ones are those that suffer the most. I feel that it is necessary to write this article to show the world that I am no longer the same person I was when I began my prison sentence. I hope that all who read this will gain a new perspective on those who are incarcerated and begin to understand our situation. With your help we can become productive members of society.
Dung
But by the time I was 25 I was fully committed to not only nonviolence (I had not been in a fight since 2007) but to the rehabilitation and assistance of my peers in any way I can. Mostly through legal work and educational assistance via tutoring. And it is my dream to be released and go to law school so that I can assist the incarcerated, especially those from the most impoverished communities.
David
I fear I won’t enjoy a full and normal relationship with a woman and build a legacy together. My liberation from my imprisonment, though it pales in comparison to my ancestors’ freedom from enslavement, isn’t less desired or imagined.
Vincent
I fear many things, Not being able to be free and live my life at its fullest and experiencing everything life has to offer. Not having kids and raising them. I'm afraid of dying in prison, being institutionalized and losing my sanity (being mentally messed up from long term incarceration). I'm afraid of my parents passing away before I get out of prison and not being able to give back and take care of them. I'm afraid of being forgotten and alone in prison. I'm afraid of not having a meaningful and purposeful life outside these walls.
Billy
The pro Prison Industrial Complex advocates would have the majority of society believe that their system works by highlighting successful cases such as mine. They would also have the majority believe that our nations under-developed communities are not that bad since a handful of individuals from these communities have found success in life. For me, the issue is not the few that have found their way from the bottom, but rather the many that continue to remain victimized by a system that needs the mass majority of these poverty-stricken communities right where they are.
Ralph
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