Meet Leonard…
This situation can take your lust for life away, what I use to like or intrigue me, I find myself despising. The person I used to be thought of love as something real, almost tangible. To view human nature in this form from within prison I now believe people as a majority don’t care about people. Because the prison I am at is such an attack on human nature- love of any type, form or meaning almost doesn’t seem real. Grim reality.
Incarcerated: 10 years
Housed: Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, Carlisle, Indiana
I was raised in a household where we’d move every year. I switched many schools. My mother would pick me and my sister up every other weekend. I had no father but my uncles on my mother’s side taught me how to be a man. During my teenage years, I was rapping like and being very unfaithful to my son’s mother and justifying it by thinking in terms of money. I loved money, cars, clothes and my family. But, the most important of the four I neglected to love them properly. I thought I had it all together. I was able to hold jobs in the free world for long periods of time, although I was hustling and soliciting women to fulfill my addiction to drinking and gambling. I am here for someone being disrespectful to me and the female, while at a restaurant, and I regret it all. I had no idea what prison was like. Nobody really does until they are in one or someone truly tells you what it’s like to be inside a prison. Now, looking back on my younger years I wish I had someone who would have put more conscious reading material in my hands. Where I am at is an oppressive farm. Since my incarceration I’ve seen the pain I’ve caused my victim’s family and my own and I’ve rebuilt mentally since then. I immersed myself in true history, business, and economics. I’ve came up with many inventions with the hopes of helping and not hurting people. This is how I spent my time, as if I am about to go before a venture capitalist for an investment at any day. But now, I feel like I am in the twilight zone because now that I have all I need to be successful, I can’t get to it.
This type of oppression has made me an angry person, and I’m always angry. This prison is like a daycare, they treat and talk to you like little boys. They take you as a danger if you carry yourself as a man or a man with dignity. Many lawsuits against medical, our pictures get copied in black and white (even obituaries), no fruits served, all controlled movement, no non-white employees (male or female), and not allowed to see rated R-movies.
This situation can take your lust for life away, what I use to like or intrigue me, I find myself despising. The person I used to be thought of love as something real, almost tangible. To view human nature in this form from within prison I now believe people as a majority don’t care about people. Because the prison I am at is such an attack on human nature- love of any type, form or meaning almost doesn’t seem real. Grim reality.
We just have to keep praying that your time to come home will be soon. Just keep living it day by day. Love you