Thank you for inviting my input during our July 28 meeting. In response to your request for bold, actionable ideas, I respectfully offer the following strategies, grounded in decades of lived experience, national outreach, and results-driven reform efforts.

Define and Incentivize Excellence

• Define “extraordinary and compelling adjustment” and introduce it at Admissions & Orientation.
• Use merit-based incentives within Custody & Classification to incentivize personal development.
• Encourage wardens to lead results-driven cultures, tracking participation in success planning, and competing with wardens in similarly rated institutions. Apply the same strategies society uses to measure CEO performance with P&L—except here the metric is improving lives.

Deliver 24/7 Access to Growth Tools

• Use tablets to offer video, audio, and text-based self-directed learning (reentry, mindset, career, values).
• Guide people to build release plans, track growth, and make the case for higher liberty through merit.

Promote Transparency and Motivation

• Create public or internal dashboards where people earn points for self-directed preparations such as journaling, release planning, book reports, and skills-building.
• Encourage community support, employment opportunities, and dignity restoration through visible progress.

Expand Merit-Based Liberty Pathways

Offer earned access to:

• Lower security levels
• Home confinement, work-release, or furloughs
• Honor dorms, extended visits, or work-release programs
• Digital skills programs tied to income opportunities

Foster Public-Private Innovation

• Launch Shark Tank–style competitions inside institutions where participants pitch plans for success post-release.
• Invite business mentors, offering rewards like transfer eligibility or advocacy support.
• Create a Clemency Support Pipeline in partnership with the Office of the Pardon Attorney to identify and elevate reform-minded candidates.

Next Steps

With your support, Prison Professors Charitable is ready to collaborate with the BOP to scale these ideas through training tools, institutional visits, and partnerships. I look forward to continuing the conversation.

I offer a more thorough development of these ideas in the pages to follow.

Michael Santos
Phone: 415-419-1728
Email: Michael@prisonprofessors.org