Mental Health and Support

Why this matters now

When the caption reads United States of America v. [Your Name], it doesn’t feel like a court filing; it feels like your life just flipped. People who were once steady at work or at home can suddenly feel like a puppet—prosecutors, investigators, grand juries, and lawyers tug at strings that set your schedule and shape your options. That loss of control shows up again in custody, and again after release. Mental resilience isn’t a slogan in this stage; it’s the base that lets you carry out every other part of your plan.

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Build it yourself

No one is going to build your mindset for you. Not the government. Not a case manager. Not a lawyer. Certainly not a “prison consultant.” The work looks like this:

• identify the problem (“I’m going to prison,” or “I’m coming home and have to rebuild”);
• write a plan to deal with it;
• set the first priorities;
• assemble tools, tactics, and people who move the plan forward;
• execute;
• adjust as conditions change.

That sequence carried me through 26 years. It still works on the outside. It is not complicated, but it demands honesty about where you stand and what you can prove you did today.

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Learn from builders, then do the work

I didn’t invent this approach. I learned by studying people who built something durable—Socrates, Viktor Frankl, Nelson Mandela, Frederick Douglass—and by testing their ideas against my own reality. I also paid attention to modern builders—Gates, Bezos, Jobs—and to operators who explained a simple truth: the skills that got you here won’t necessarily get you there. Prison is a different environment. Movement, communication, association, and time are controlled. Your plan has to match those limits.

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Navigating the loss of human rights

Inside, freedoms we take for granted don’t exist: who you talk to, how you learn, who you spend time with, what you wear, what you eat. You will feel it. Your job is to succeed anyway. Decide who you intend to be on the other side, then do small, verifiable things that move you there every day.

When I was 23—locked in solitary for a year, facing a sentence that could have been life—I used to picture myself at the bottom of a pit. Every day I owed myself one more rung on the ladder out: one page read with notes; one journal entry; one respectful interaction that avoided a problem; one letter written; one step completed on a longer project. The ladder didn’t build itself. I built it. That habit didn’t make the time vanish; it made me stronger than the time.

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Stop outsourcing responsibility

You cannot hire someone to do this part for you. This isn’t about praise. It’s about results. You know your story better than anyone. When you outsource your thinking, you inherit other people’s incentives. Pay attention to who benefits when you remain passive. Then get back to your plan.

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“What’s in it for me?”

Most people make choices through that WIIFM lens. Use it properly. 

• What step will help you meet obligations, reduce risk, and build a record you can show? 
• What relationship keeps you steady when an indifferent official holds a lever over your day? 

Keep the steps that move your plan forward: mental steadiness, lawful income, family stability, and a file that probation, courts, and employers can verify. Eliminate anything that doesn’t serve those outcomes.

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A method you can use

I like Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin origin story because it shows method. He wrote a nine-page white paper, gave it to people who could understand it, launched the network, and then built it in small increments. 

The sequence translates: write a short plan in plain language; share it with people who will hold you to it (family, a mentor); build in small increments you can verify. Keep the pages. Don’t present happy talk. Present a track record.

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How to start the plan today

Grab one sheet of paper. Write four lines:

1. the outcome you want in the next 90 days;
2. the first three priorities that move you there;
3. the tools, people, or information you still need;
4. what you will complete this week.

Tomorrow you cross off one item and replace it with a new one. At the end of the week you keep one page that shows what happened, what you learned, and what you will do next. The point is not to make a thick plan; the point is to build a trail of dated work you can show.

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While you are inside

Success in prison isn’t “running the TV room.” That’s a plan to live in prison. Your plan is to come home with your dignity intact and options in front of you. That means you spend your days producing something you can show: pages read with notes, courses completed, written reflections, clean conduct, and respectful interactions when the day gets hard. You won’t control the system. You will control your response and your record.

Your Profile on PrisonProfessors.org turns private effort into a public record of progress. A trusted supporter can help keep it current while you are inside.

• Biography — Describe who you are now and the direction you’re building toward, not just the case that brought you here.
• Journals — Post dated entries that show the work—reading and notes, letters written, daily “rungs,” and adjustments you made.
• Book Reports — Explain why you chose each title, what you learned, and how you used those lessons this month.
• Release Plan — Share the short plan you can hand someone—priorities, tools and people, dates, and how you’ll adjust when conditions change.
• Testimonials — Add concise notes from mentors or family who have watched your effort and can speak to your follow-through.

Update your Profile regularly and consistently so progress is ongoing, timestamped, and verifiable.

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When you come home

The world will have shifted. It happened to me. After 26 years, the first time I held a smartphone I thought it was broken—there was no dial tone. Driving felt foreign. Even eating with metal utensils was strange after decades of plastic. You work through those frictions with calm repetition and a short list of priorities: housing, lawful income, supervision, family routines. Keep the same ladder habit. 

Small, verifiable steps—executed and recorded—become your leverage with officers, judges, employers, and landlords.

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About “consultants”

I discourage hiring a “prison consultant” to fix this for you. Too many went into that line after a short stay in a camp, charge thousands, and repackage free material or AI output. The outcomes you want depend on your conduct and your record. Use the same tools they use and the free resources at PrisonProfessors.org. Know your facts, name the problem, and follow the plan you wrote. If you want live Q&A, you can join Justin Paperny’s weekly webinar at WhiteCollarAdvice.com/Nonprofit.

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Key takeaways

A criminal case will test you. Resilience is built the same way anything real is built: define the problem; write the plan; set priorities; gather tools and people; execute; adjust. Learn from builders. Reject shortcuts. Do the work you can prove. The record you create today is the leverage you use tomorrow.

Self-directed exercise

Publish a mental-resilience packet to your Profile:

1. Biography — 8–12 sentences on what changed your thinking and the direction you are setting now.
2. Journals — Four weekly entries that each show one “rung” added daily and one adjustment made at week’s end.
3. Book Report — A title by a builder you respect: why you chose it, what you learned, and one action you will complete this month.
4. Release Plan — A two-page plan you can hand a mentor: priorities, tools/people, dates, and how you’ll adjust.
5. Testimonials — Two short statements: one from a mentor or family member who has watched your effort, one from someone who received value from your work.

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