September 24, 2014
Focusing on the End Game
Last evening I spoke with a gentleman who is in a spot that I once knew. Alex is going to surrender to a federal prison camp in October. His sentence will keep him confined for three years, after good time and his successful completion of RDAP, aka Residential Drug Abuse Program. Based on our call he will serve at least six months in the halfway house as well. Certainly, Alex is anxious and worried about what the future holds. Additionally, like me, he is worried about things that in the end will not matter much. I will explain.
Before I surrendered to Taft Federal Prison Camp to begin serving an 18-month sentence for violating securities laws, I was a wreck. Like Alex, I was overeating before my surrender, thinking the food in prison would be awful. It was not. I feared my job would be extremely hard and unbearable. It was not. Working in the dishroom for six months at Taft Federal Prison Camp reaffirmed how hard millions of people in our country work all day, every day. Even though I waited tables in college, I had forgotten "how hard" hard work could really be. In time, I grew to like the position, staying on two months longer than required. I assumed I would lose contact with my family, and that I would be forgotten. I was wrong. I wrote letters daily, called when I could, and visited frequently. I could go on and on.
A good bunk or job assignment helps ease an adjustment, but it should't be the entire focus. The food in the chow hall is more than decent, and the items in the commissary could please even the pickiest eater. The only thing that really matters, I told Alex, is how he chooses to adjust on the inside. Rather than obsessing over the food, his job or bunk, I encouraged him to focus on the steps he could take to prepare for his life after he is released from federal prison. What time do you plan to wake, I asked him? What are your health and fitness goals? How do you plan to earn a living, now that you have lost your law licenses? How do you plan to nurture your relationship with your wife and children? Do you think it fair that you are complaining about serving three years for a multi million dollar fraud when many of the good men around you in prison are serving 20 years for non-violent drug crimes? How do you think that argument will go over in the chow hall?
Alex did not know the answer to these questions. Instead, he was focused on how many apples he could purchase per week, or how he could finagle his way into the best job or bunk. What matters most, I told him, is working on a plan to answer some of the questions I posed above and to making a 100% commitment to focusing on the end game, emerging stronger. I was glad to receive Alex's call. I look forward to working with him as he prepares for his surrender. With my tutelage I am convinced he will be in a better position to overcome the myriad obstacles awaiting people with felony records.
Justin Paperny
