People ask me many questions through our Prison Professors programs. Some people ask about sentencing. Some ask about the First Step Act. Some ask about how to prepare for prison, or how to help a loved one come home stronger.
The question I want to answer today is this:
What are effective prison reform strategies?
I appreciate that question because I have been thinking about it since the very beginning of my journey, when I was locked in solitary confinement in August of 1987.
At that time, I did not know much about prison reform. I only knew that I had made bad decisions. I had broken the law. A federal judge would later sentence me to 45 years in prison for my role in trafficking cocaine. I was responsible for the decisions that brought me into the system.
But while I sat in solitary confinement, I began to think differently.
I asked myself questions:
What can I learn from this experience?
How can I reconcile with society?
How can I use this time to grow stronger?
What would it take to emerge from prison with my dignity intact?
What would it take to become a law-abiding, contributing citizen?
Those questions shaped the rest of my life.
They also shaped the way I think about prison reform.
The System Changed When I Entered Prison
When I began serving my sentence, the federal prison system was going through a major transition.
Before the law changed, the federal system had a parole process. Under that old law system, the United States Parole Commission served as a separate body that could review a person’s progress.
For example, if a judge sentenced a person to nine years in prison, that person might know that after serving about three years, he could appear before the parole board. The parole board had discretion. It could look at the person’s conduct, growth, education, remorse, and preparation. If the person had built a strong record, the parole board could release him to serve the rest of the sentence in the community.
That system created an incentive.
A person could ask:
What can I do today to show that I am worthy of more liberty?
How can I demonstrate accountability?
How can I show that I am preparing to live responsibly?
How can I prove that I will contribute to society?
Then the law changed.
Federal parole was abolished. Truth-in-sentencing laws required people to serve most of the sentence imposed by the judge. In the federal system, that meant people would serve about 85% of the sentence.
When I entered the system, the federal prison population was somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 people. Over time, that population grew to more than 200,000 people. State prison systems also expanded. Across the country, we built more prisons, filled more beds, and measured justice by the number of calendar pages that turned.
But we did not ask enough questions about outcomes.
Did longer prison terms make communities safer?
Did they lower recidivism?
Did they help people reconcile with society?
Did they prepare people for jobs, family responsibilities, and citizenship?
Those are the questions that matter.
The Problem With Measuring Justice Only by Time
A judge imposes a sentence. That sentence is a consequence. People who break the law should expect consequences.
I never minimize that truth.
But after the sentence begins, another question becomes more important:
What will the person do with the time?
If the system only measures justice by how many days a person spends in a cage, then we miss the opportunity to influence behavior.
We should want people to grow.
We should want people to learn.
We should want people to prepare for employment.
We should want people to build stronger families.
We should want people to understand the harm they caused and work to make amends.
We should want people to emerge better than when they entered.
That does not happen by accident.
It happens when we build systems that incentivize the pursuit of excellence.
What It Means to Incentivize Excellence
When I use the phrase “incentivize excellence,” I am not talking about giving away rewards without effort.
I am talking about building a system that says:
If you educate yourself, that should matter.
If you build skills, that should matter.
If you contribute to society, that should matter.
If you document your growth, that should matter.
If you build a release plan, that should matter.
If you build a support network, that should matter.
If you prepare for employment, that should matter.
If you show accountability and remorse, that should matter.
That type of system would be more consistent with the way America works.
In America, a person may begin at an entry-level job. If that person learns, works hard, develops skills, and proves reliability, more opportunities open. The person may earn more responsibility. With more responsibility, the person may earn more income. With more income, the person may strengthen a family and contribute to the community.
We need a similar structure inside prisons.
People should know that if they work toward excellence, they can earn higher levels of responsibility and liberty.
Not because they say they changed.
Because they can prove it.
My Own Strategy
I could not change the 45-year sentence that a judge imposed. I could not change the bad decisions I had made. I could not change the law that abolished parole.
But I could change how I served the sentence.
Leaders taught me to stop complaining about what I could not control and start focusing on what I could build.
That is why I created a three-pronged strategy to guide me through 9,500 days in prison.
First, I would educate myself.
Second, I would contribute to society in meaningful, measurable ways.
Third, I would build a strong support network.
That strategy gave me direction.
I did not want to drift through prison. I did not want the prison culture to define me. I did not want to adjust to confinement in ways that would make me less capable of succeeding upon release.
I wanted to work.
I wanted to grow.
I wanted to prepare.
So I defined success in each area.
For education, success meant earning a university degree.
For contribution, success meant becoming a published author.
For support, success meant finding people I did not know and persuading them to believe in me, to guide me, and to become part of my support network.
Then I set a time frame.
I gave myself ten years to achieve those goals.
Since I had a 45-year sentence, ten years felt realistic. It gave me enough time to work, but it also created urgency. I could not wait for the system to change. I had to change myself.
By staying disciplined, I achieved those goals in eight years instead of ten.
Those early decisions changed my life.
Because I educated myself, I became more capable.
Because I wrote and published, I learned to communicate.
Because I built a support network, more people opened doors.
By the time I finished 9,500 days in prison on August 12, 2013, I had income opportunities waiting for me. I began working as a professor. That opportunity did not come from luck. It came from the seeds I planted every day while I was inside.
That experience convinced me that more people should have incentives to prepare.
Reform Must Begin With the Individual
Many people talk about prison reform as if it only depends on lawmakers, judges, administrators, or advocacy groups.
Those stakeholders matter.
But reform also begins with the individual.
Every person in prison can ask:
What am I doing today to prepare for success tomorrow?
What am I learning?
What am I building?
What record am I creating?
Who will believe in me because of the work I am doing?
How will my actions today influence my prospects for liberty in the future?
No one can answer those questions for the individual.
A lawyer cannot do that work.
A case manager cannot do that work.
A family member cannot do that work.
A nonprofit cannot do that work.
Only the individual can make the daily decisions that build a stronger record.
That is why our work at Prison Professors focuses on self-directed learning.
We want people to understand the relationship between the decisions they make today and the opportunities that may open in the future.
Reform Must Also Broaden the Constituency
When I returned to society, I understood that I had to become an ambassador for this message.
I could not just talk about what went wrong in the prison system. I had to show what could go right when a person prepares well.
That meant I had to work on myself first.
Then I had to build a message that others could understand.
The general public wants safer communities. Employers want reliable workers. Families want their loved ones to come home stronger. Administrators want safer institutions. Taxpayers want better outcomes for the money spent on corrections.
If we want reform, we have to speak to all of those audiences.
We cannot build support by only saying that prisons are broken.
We have to show a better way.
We have to show that when people prepare, outcomes improve.
We have to show that education, accountability, and documented progress can lead to safer communities.
That is why I began bringing programs into prisons.
It was never about me.
It was about reaching more people with a message:
You can start preparing today.
You can build a plan.
You can document your growth.
You can develop skills.
You can build a support network.
You can work to become a law-abiding, contributing citizen.
The Role of the Profiles Platform
At Prison Professors, we are building tools that help people document their growth.
The Profiles Platform is part of that strategy.
Through the platform, people can memorialize the steps they are taking to prepare for success. They can write biographies. They can journal. They can write book reports. They can build release plans. They can collect testimonials. They can show the world how they are working to reconcile with society and prepare for the job market.
That record matters.
If a person wants a job after release, an employer will want to know:
Who is this person today?
What has this person learned?
What skills has this person developed?
What evidence shows reliability?
Who supports this person?
How has this person prepared for success?
A strong profile can answer those questions.
If a person wants to advocate for home confinement, community placement, clemency, compassionate release, or early termination of supervised release, stakeholders will want evidence. A strong profile can help provide that evidence.
We currently feature close to 8,000 people through our profile system. We score and track the ways people are memorializing their pathways to success. That data helps us advocate for reforms that reward effort, accountability, and preparation.
We want to show that people are more than their worst decisions.
But the individual must do the work to prove it.
Preparing for the Job Market
One of the most important reform strategies is preparing people for employment.
The job market is not friendly to people with criminal backgrounds. Anyone who has gone through the system understands that reality.
A person may come home ready to work, but employers may hesitate. Applications may ask about criminal history. Background checks may create barriers. Gaps in employment may raise questions. Lack of digital skills may make the transition even harder.
That is why preparation must begin long before release.
People should use their time inside to build skills that employers value:
Communication
Critical thinking
Reliability
Discipline
Writing
Reading
Financial literacy
Digital literacy
Accountability
Teamwork
Problem solving
They should also learn how to tell their story.
A person coming home should be able to say:
I made bad decisions. I accept responsibility. I used my time to learn, grow, and prepare. Here is the record I built. Here are the books I read. Here are the courses I completed. Here are the people who support me. Here is my release plan. Here is how I will contribute.
That message can open doors.
It opened doors for me.
It can open doors for others.
Reform Should Make Prisons More Like America
If we want people to return to society successfully, we should make prisons more like the society we want them to enter.
In America, we expect people to work, learn, contribute, and build relationships. We expect people to solve problems. We expect people to take initiative. We expect people to prepare for opportunities.
Prisons should encourage the same behavior.
Instead, too many prisons operate in ways that reward passivity. People wait. They count time. They adjust to the institution. They learn prison values instead of community values.
That does not serve public safety.
An effective prison reform strategy would create clear pathways.
A person would enter the system and learn:
Here is how you can begin preparing.
Here is how you can document your work.
Here is how you can earn higher levels of responsibility.
Here is how you can build a record for consideration.
Here is how your choices today can influence your future.
That structure would change the way many people adjust.
It would influence the books they read.
It would influence the people they spend time with.
It would influence whether they enroll in programs.
It would influence whether they write, reflect, and build a release plan.
It would influence whether they think about employment before release.
That is reform.
We Need Data, Not Slogans
Prison reform cannot depend only on slogans.
We need data.
We need examples.
We need profiles.
We need documented stories of people who use time wisely and come home prepared to contribute.
When we collect that evidence, we can show policymakers and administrators that incentives work.
We can show that people who prepare well are more likely to succeed.
We can show that earned freedom through merit is not a theory. It is a practical strategy for improving outcomes.
That is why transparency matters.
When people document their growth, they help themselves. They also help others. Their records become part of a broader movement to show that the system should reward preparation and accountability.
A Better Way Than Warehousing People
We should not measure justice only by how long a person remains in a cage.
That approach has consequences.
When people spend years in environments that do not encourage growth, they may become more disconnected from society. They may lose family ties. They may lose work habits. They may become more influenced by prison culture. They may return home with fewer tools than they need to succeed.
That does not help victims.
That does not help families.
That does not help taxpayers.
That does not help communities.
A better strategy would ask:
How do we encourage people to grow?
How do we prepare people for employment?
How do we strengthen families?
How do we reward accountability?
How do we create incentives for people to reconcile with society?
How do we make our communities safer?
Those questions lead to better answers.
Reform Requires Personal Responsibility and Opportunity
Some people talk about reform only in terms of opportunity. Others talk only in terms of personal responsibility.
I believe we need both.
A person who broke the law must accept responsibility.
That means no excuses.
It means acknowledging harm.
It means working to make amends.
It means preparing to live differently.
But the system should also create opportunities for people who do that work.
If someone builds a strong record over time, stakeholders should be able to review that record. If someone develops skills, contributes to others, documents growth, and prepares for employment, the system should recognize that effort.
That is how we create incentives.
That is how we encourage better decisions.
That is how we improve outcomes.
The Prison Professors Approach
At Prison Professors, we advocate for reforms rooted in the pursuit of excellence.
We are not asking people to wait passively for change.
We are asking people to become part of the change.
We provide free resources because we want every person, regardless of sentence length, security level, or financial resources, to have access to strategies that can help them prepare.
Our courses teach people to define success, build plans, set priorities, develop tools and resources, measure progress, and execute every day.
Those are the same principles that leaders taught me.
Those are the same principles that carried me through 26 years in prison.
Those are the same principles that helped me build opportunities after release.
And those are the same principles that can help others prepare for better outcomes.
Effective Reform Starts Today
People sometimes wait for laws to change before they begin preparing.
I understand why. The system can feel overwhelming. People may feel discouraged. They may feel as if nothing they do matters.
But I know from experience that the work matters.
Even when I had no parole date, I worked.
Even when I did not know whether anyone would care, I worked.
Even when I had decades remaining to serve, I worked.
That work changed the way I saw myself. It changed the way others saw me. It opened relationships. It opened opportunities. It prepared me for life after prison.
That is why I encourage every person in our community to begin today.
Read a book.
Write a book report.
Start a journal.
Build a release plan.
Create a biography.
Ask for a testimonial.
Learn a skill.
Help someone else.
Document the journey.
Those small steps become a body of work. That body of work becomes evidence. Evidence can become advocacy. Advocacy can open opportunities.
The Reform We Stand Behind
The prison reform we stand behind is simple:
Create systems that incentivize people to pursue excellence.
Encourage people to work toward earning freedom through merit.
Prepare people for employment and contribution.
Build transparent records that show growth.
Use data and stories to persuade stakeholders.
Open more pathways for people to earn higher levels of liberty when they prove readiness.
That approach does not ignore accountability.
It strengthens accountability.
It tells every person:
Your past matters, but your future depends on what you do now.
You cannot change yesterday, but you can build a better record today.
You cannot control every decision in the system, but you can control the effort you make.
You can prepare.
You can grow.
You can contribute.
You can build a pathway to success.
That is the message of Prison Professors.
That is the reform I believe in.
And if you are going through the system, or if you love someone going through the system, I want you to know that I believe in you.
Self-Directed Reflection Question
What record are you building today that would show stakeholders you are preparing to live as a law-abiding, contributing citizen worthy of higher levels of liberty?