Bonus Content 1

No matter how terrible we think we are; how bad we believe we have been;

or how low we have fallen, we can clean out our minds and begin again.

We can all dream.

We can all soar to higher heights!

• While I was in prison, I developed legal skills and spent as much time as I could in the prison library to file motions to the court requesting that the court modify my sentence to grant me parole.

• I won.

• I helped other inmates as well.

• My incarceration lasted 9,125 days (25 years).

These are some of my accomplishments while I was incarcerated:

●       Received training as a paralegal and CPR Instructor.

●       Served as President of a prison-based Toastmasters International, Inc., prison chapter.

●       Received recognition as a Toastmasters International Best Speaker.

●       Received recognition as a Jaycees Club Best Speaker.

●       Received certificates in multiple trade skills in the construction industry. For instance, I earned A and A+ grades in 90 percent of my training classes, which included: carpentry; carpenter helper and carpentry technician; safety hand tools; power tools; building materials; applied mathematics; blueprint reading; foundation and floor framing; and ceiling framing and roofing.

Currently, I mentor youth and I maintain several social media platforms that have garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

Let’s Stay In Touch

• I’d be glad to hear from you. Share your ideas about what you’ve read. Share some of your stories and insights with me. I’d appreciate your feedback. To reach me, follow me on:

• Instagram: XXXX

• Facebook: XXXXXX

• If you follow me, you will be among the first to know about my next book, which will be an autobiography. In that book, titled 9,125 Days: Raised in Texas State Reformatory, I write my entire life story. Don’t miss out. See you online!

• Just for you, I’ll share an excerpt from my autobiography. Hit me up on Instagram and tell me how you like it:

• Book Excerpt: I was a 16-year-old boy when I walked into prison. When I walked back out, 9,125 days later, I was a man.

• This is my story.

• My book will take you deep inside prison, a place where blood is shed every day. A dangerous place where 6,000 men have been murdered since 1960. Others have been raped and others have been driven insane.

• Hundreds committed suicide while I was there. I witnessed ten suicides myself.

• On my first day in prison, as the bars slammed shut in my face, I realized that I would be trapped inside that hell hole for two-and-a half decades. I needed to grow up quick, fast and in a hurry. I didn’t have time to cry about my being innocent or whine about the system of injustices that sent me there.

• Within that wickedness, my life was not the joyous one that all children deserve. My life was in danger 24 x 7 x 9,125. 

• You know, 25 years in prison is unimaginable, isn’t it? What does being confined for that long—unable to freely take a walk outside or go to see your family and friends—feel like? How does a boy become a man in prison? How does he keep his mind, body and soul from being violated and destroyed?

• How does a student with good grades, who came from a good family, sell drugs and get sent to prison for killing a drug dealer?

• I had to be as stronger or stronger than all the other prisoners. I had to protect myself from getting beaten, raped or killed. I had no one to count on or trust, except myself and my God. His angels were with me, and I grabbed onto their wings.

• Angels pulled me out of my cell and flew me to a high place, a spiritual place high above the prison grounds to a place where I discovered the secrets that kept me alive and set me free. In my book—9,125 Days: Raised in Texas State Reformatory, I will reveal those secrets to you.

Review the Lessons in Crime Is Just Dumb Lessons Review

 Lesson 1: Incarcerated for 9,125 Days

1. Are you doing anything that could send you to prison?

2. How many inmates are in Texas State Reformatory?

3. What is your definition of something that’s just dumb?

4. List three things dumb things you’ve seen people do.

Lesson 2: Peer Pressure Put this Teenager in Prison

1. What was the key mistake that Whopper made?

2. What are some of the other mistakes that he made?

3. Summarize Whop’s story in your own words.

4. Do you know anyone like Whop?

5. Was Whopper a good or a bad kid? Explain your answer.

6. If you were Whop’s friend, would you have helped him rob the store.

7. Did Whopper have a good reason to rob the store? SEARCH THRU OUT WHOOPER

8. Can you think of any good reason to rob a store?

9. Did Whop’s story interest you a lot, a little or not at all?

10. Have you ever taken a dangerous risk to get something you wanted?

Lesson 3: Life on a Modern Day Plantation

1. In which state is Texas State Reformatory prison located?

2. What kind of work does a Texas State Reformatory inmate do?

3. What was the Texas State Reformatory facility used for before it became the nation’s largest prison?

4. What types of crimes do you think Texas State Reformatory prisoners committed?

5. How many years did the author say he stayed in Texas State Reformatory?

Lesson 4: Stripped and Humiliated

1. What happens during a Shakedown?

2. What are some of the ways drugs are smuggled into prison?

3. What are some of the things that happen during a strip search?

Lesson 5: In The Hole

1. What does it mean to you when the author states that in prison abnormal things are normal?

2. What does abnormal mean? Give an example.

3. Describe The Hole. What are some of the things that happen in The Hole?

Lesson 6: Dumb Decisions Destroy Communities

1. What does “community” mean?

2. Describe your community and the people who live there.

3. Are you proud of your community. If yes, explain why. If not, explain why.

4. What should be done to improve your community.

5. Do you feel safe in your community?

Lesson 7: Your Obituary Will Be Your Life Story

1. What is an obituary?

2. What is the purpose of an obituary?

3. Are you ready to use your imagination to write your obituary?

   
   

Critical Questions to e You Think Deeply

Note: Some of the questions below are directed towards individuals who’ve been involved in violence and/or crime. Skip any questions that do not apply to you.

1.      Have you ever used violence to settle a dispute?

2.      Generally speaking, what are some alternatives to violence?

3.      Have you ever committed violence?

4.      If so, did you feel good or bad afterwards?

a.       Could you have disabled or killed someone due to your actions?

b.      How does your family feel about the harm you caused?

c.       Is how they feel important to you?

d.      Do you think you will commit violence again?

5.      Have you ever apologized for something you did?

6.      Have you ever been a victim of violence?

7.      How did it make you feel?

8.      Have you ever committed a crime?

a.       If so, what were the circumstances?

b.      Why did you decide to do what you did?

c.       Did you feel pressured to commit the crime(s)?

d.      Do you think you will commit a crime in the future?

9.      Do you think that eventually people who commit crime get caught and sent to prison?

10.  Do you think committing crime is worth spending years in prison?

11.  How would your family feel if you went to prison?

12.  Do you think being in prison is something to be proud of?

13.  How would you feel if you had to be stripped searched?

14.  Why do you think Whopper chose to use a gun?

15.  Did Whop’s actions achieve his goal? Or make it worse?

16.  Do you like the person you are today?

17.  Do you want to live a crime-free life?

18.  Can you envision a good life for yourself?

19.  Can you be a good person all the time?

20.  Do you believe in yourself?

21.  Have you done anything to damage your community?

22.  What can you do to make your community better?

23.  Are you a positive or negative influence on others?

24.  Is there a positive adult that you look up to?

25.  What do you like about that person?

26.  Where do you think you will be in five years?

27.  Where do you think young people who commit crimes will be in the next five years?

28.  Will you promise to never commit a crime?

Bonus Lesson: Respect or Freedom?

Which Would You Choose?

• When I arrived in Texas prison at 16, I quickly had to become as strong as a grown man.  I had no place to seek refuge. My only protection was myself.  I literally had to look evil in the eye. I was under so much pressure that it seemed like every single inmate in the prison was watching me. They wanted to see whether I could handle my business not like a man but as a man.  There is a big difference between looking like a man and being a man.

• Young men: Being a male will not automatically make you a man.  Likewise, young ladies, being a female will not make you a woman. Your intellect is the key.

• If you use your brain effectively, you will mature into adulthood. You will develop “critical thinking skills,” which allow you to think carefully about something, without allowing feelings to affect you. (Cambridge.org)

• Critical thinking skills will give you the mental power to analyze the short-term and long-term results and consequences of everything you do.

• As you mature, your critical thinking skills will grow stronger, and you will stop yourself from acting out the emotions and impulses that often lead to trouble. For instance, if someone does something you don’t like, you might immediately feel like retaliating. But a more mature approach would be to think carefully before you respond. Sometimes, to avoid getting involved in a conflict, all you need to do is stay cool and show a person that you respect him or her—including authority figures, like police officers—even if they don’t really deserve your respect.

• Try your best to show them respect, anyway. Treat them like you want them to treat you. It’s not wise to lower yourself to the level of a disrespectful person.

• You see, it's all about your mental.

• Your mind is POWERFUL. But, if you don’t develop your mind, you will think like a child. You will fail to respect yourself and others, and you will certainly do dumb things. You see, you do not have to be dumb to do dumb things.

• Youngsters who use mind-altering drugs are especially prone to doing dumb things. They often get into trouble, act violently, and risk being arrested and sent to prison or an early grave.

• I was not fully mature when I was sent to prison. I was captivated by acts of violence. I wanted to do violent things, because my brain was impressed by the violence I witnessed in my community.

• If you would like a more scientific explanation of what I am saying about the impressionable brain of a young person, here it is: According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: 

• Scientists have identified a specific region of the brain called the amygdala that is responsible for immediate reactions, including fear and aggressive behavior. This region develops early. However, the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls reasoning and helps us think before we act, develops later. This part of the brain is still changing and maturing well into adulthood.

  
  

  Based on the stage of their brain development, adolescents are more likely to:

•          act on impulse,

•          misinterpret social cues and emotions,

•          get into accidents of all kinds,

•          get involved in fights, and

•          engage in dangerous or risky behavior.

Adolescents are less likely to:

•          think before they act,

•          pause to consider the consequences of their actions, and

•          change their dangerous or inappropriate behaviors.

These brain differences don't mean that young people can't make good decisions or tell the difference between right and wrong. It also doesn't mean that they shouldn't be held responsible for their actions. However, an awareness of these differences can help parents, teachers, advocates, and policy makers understand, anticipate, and manage the behavior of adolescents.

 Becoming a Man Behind Bars

• Eventually, after spending years behind prison bars and barbed-wire fences, I matured and understood and accepted the consequences of my actions. I grew into a strong man. I made rational decisions regarding what to do and not do; and what to say and not say.

• I earned the respect of most of the prison guards and inmates.

• I guess that's something to brag about, right?

• WRONG!

• You see, the respect I gained in prison was important to me, but I would have eagerly traded my respect for your freedom.

• Would you want to make such a trade?

• I don't think so. I hope you would not be that foolish.

Respect or Freedom

• What does “critical thinking” mean? Give an example of how you can use it to avoid trouble.

• What does it mean to be mature?

• What is an immature teenager likely to do? For instance, pick the three correct answers below:

a.     Act on emotion/impulse.

b.    Engage in dangerous or risky behavior.

c.    Think critically.

d.   Get into fights/act violently.

e.   Pause to consider the consequences of his or her actions.

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