Pathways to Reform

My Journey Back:

My name is Mike. I’m not going to give my full name because I’m still in the halfway house. The Bureau of Prisons released me earlier this May after I served an 84-month sentence for a white-collar case. While serving my sentence, I met Michael Santos, founder of Prison Professors, a nonprofit. He told the audience that he’d been visiting several federal prisons as part of his effort to improve outcomes and bring reforms to America’s prison system. Those reforms included a movement to open mechanisms that would allow people to work toward earning freedom through merit. He spoke about possibilities for work-release programs, and pathways to earn furloughs home. I liked those ideas. Before he left, I introduced myself and pledged to connect with him when I got out. .

In early May, after settling into the halfway house, I reached out to Michael through the website PrisonProfessors.org. I offered ideas on how we could use technology in the nonprofit, which began a conversation. He told me that part of his nonprofit’s mission was in opening doors to get people started after they got out. Since I needed a job in the halfway house, he offered an opportunity for me to begin working to spread the nonprofit’s mission. 

One of my first assignments? Using a combination of AI tools and my skillset to transcribe videos that he makes to spread the message of our nonprofit. I like that we’re learning to work together as a team, with one mission: to improve outcomes for people who go through any stage of the criminal justice system, and to offer information at no charge to anyone who wants to learn. 

The Hard Truth

The videos are conversational, between him and Justin Paperny. Michael and Justin met more than a decade ago, when they were serving time in the same prison. They became friends, and from inside that prison, they started to lay out a plan to work incrementally on a pathway that they hoped would lead to better outcomes of America’s prison system. Like me, Justin had served time for a white-collar offense. He would work on the consumer-side of the business, which would generate revenues to support the nonprofit. Michael wanted to focus on building a non-revenue generating venture to provide free services to anyone who wanted to learn. They were building a flywheel, one that would be tough to get started, but one that could eventually build momentum. I liked the mission of spreading awareness.

In the video that accompanies this article, Michael makes a bold statement: 

“Your mom knows you shouldn’t be going to prison. Your dad knows it. You know it. But does that really matter?”

In short, no—not in the eyes of the system. What does matter is how a person responds to the criminal charges. Those who prepare well conduct a SWOT analysis, considering all strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The more information a person has, the more deliberate a person can be in making decisions. 

Michael's lesson is that we must become the CEO of our own lives, even when we're at rock bottom. 

I could identify with that message. I’d been successful during early stages of my life. I earned undergraduate, graduate, and terminal degrees in economics. I used that education to build a hedge fund and wealth-advisory firm during my 20s. Some bad decisions while building that practice led me astray. I went through judicial proceedings, pleaded guilty, and a federal judge sentenced me to serve 84 months. Once I got to prison, I recalibrated and resumed leading a more disciplined life, working to atone and make amends, as the CEO of my life..

Macro vs. Micro: Two Missions That Meet in the Middle

Although Michael spends his time with the nonprofit, his friend Justin leads a commercial venture, White Collar Advice. Justin offers a boutique service to assist people who are trying to navigate complexities of the justice system. The personal services his firm offers brings guidance to people at various stages of the process, from before they receive a target letter to the time they complete obligations to the criminal justice system and rebuild their careers

The nonprofit doesn’t offer those fee-for-services options. His entire mission is on improving the system itself, from a macro level. That non-revenue generating work requires him to build pathways for:

• Educating policymakers
• Shifting public perception
• Advocating for structural reform

Together, they cover both the personal and political—helping individuals while working to fix a system that they describe as one of the great social injustices of our time. Although society must respond to citizens who break the law, Michael’s message tells us that it should focus on the result, not the process. He elaborates by using an analogy from any undergraduate psychology course:

“When the only tool we have is a hammer, every problem tends to look like a nail.” 

Our nation confines more people than any other country. People serve sentences that are far too long. When we measure justice by the number of calendar pages that turn while a person is in prison, we’re focusing on the process. In business, the process would serve the result. But in America’s criminal justice system, we’ve got the reverse. 

If we define success as being a country that incarcerates more people than any other, and perpetuates intergenerational cycles of failure, we’ve got a great system. On the other hand, if we want people who go through the system to emerge as law-abiding, contributing citizens, then we need to think about what we can do better. 

I’m looking forward to being a part of the team at Prison Professors, where we’re working to implement reforms that would incentivize a pursuit of excellence. The harder people work to earn freedom, the better off society would be. With appropriate reforms, we’d get more people leaving prison as taxpayers. We’d build safer communities. We’d stop intergenerational cycles of failure. 

The Mission: Free, Accessible Education That Changes Lives

Here’s the heart of what we do at Prison Professors:

“We provide free, accessible educational resources to prepare people in prison for the job market.”

That line hit me. We want people to learn how to self-advocate and prepare for success upon release. If we can do that at scale, we can accomplish the following:

• Build a transparent system that shows the steps people are taking to prepare for success upon release from prison.
• Inspire people who live in environments that obliterate hope to work on personal development.
• Persuade policy makers to open more incentives that people can work toward to earn higher levels of liberty, at the earliest possible time.
• Build bridges that connect formerly incarcerated people with income opportunities so they can resume their life as contributing citizens.

The curriculum that Prison Professors offers is all self-directed. That’s a crucial component because prisons don’t always have the resources to provide classroom space or resources that motivate people to learn. It’s something know personally. Even though I was in a minimum-security camp, I could see how people failed to get self-motivated. While I served my time at the camp, I worked in education trying to push people toward their GED. They didn’t grasp why I devoted so much time to learning. Despite already having a Ph.D., I tried to explain, success required a commitment to lifelong learning. Many of the people I taught focused on the process of getting a GED, rather than viewing education as a pathway to a better life.

The self-directed curriculum that we offer through Prison Professors prepare people to earn higher incomes. It teaches them to think differently. By thinking differently, they learn how to change their life.

Even after release, they will have to confront obstacles that may hinder their pathways to success. For example:

• Criminal records can lead to challenges with traditional banking. I recently had that experience when a well-known financial service would not allow me to receive a digital paycheck because of my criminal background.

I’d been released from prison and was trying to immerse myself in the job market, but the financial system ostracized me and wouldn’t allow me to function. Michael told me that at Prison Professors, we’re striving to change such injustices, opening opportunities for people to succeed in the future, rather than putting them through the Sysiphean task of rolling a boulder up hill, only to have it roll back down.I look forward to becoming a part of this mission to build new narratives. With technology, we’ll become much more efficient at helping others see and appreciate the value of reforms that incentivize people to work toward earning freedom through merit.

The Systemic Problem

In the videos Michael offers, and through the self-directed lessons, Michael shares what he sees as a systemic problem. “The longer we expose someone to corrections, the less likely that person becomes to function in society. We perpetuate intergenerational cycles of failure.”

He served 26 years in prison, beginning in solitary confinement, going through high-security penitentiaries, to medium-security prisons, low-security prisons, to minimum-security camps, to a halfway house, and then to home confinement. Regardless of where he served the time, he served the same message:

• “You’ve got nothing coming.”
• “Can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”
• “Forget about the world outside.”

That mindset does not lead to success. The longer someone stays in that culture, the harder it is to succeed. People adjust to their surroundings rather than learn pathways to conquer adversity and prepare for the life we want them to lead. We strive to change that mindset. 

People who work through courses that Prison Professors offers learn to ask Socratic questions:

• In what ways will the decisions I’m making today influence the opportunities that open for me in one year?
• How does my adjustment strategy from last week position me to bring more value to society when I get out?
• What would stakeholders who have an influence over my liberty expect me to do while I’m here?
• How could I build a record that would persuade others to view me as being worthy of more opportunities?
• If people learn how to think about such questions, they develop a new skill. They may become more intentional about how they use their time. Society benefits. We should incentivize reforms that would yield the result we want.

Beyond the Prison Gates: Changing Policy and Public Perception

Prison Professors aspire to bring systemic change. It will take massive amounts of energy, because we’re asking people to see what is possible rather than what exists. I look forward to using my skills to contribute to this movement. We want to advance programs that lead to changes in sentencing laws, prison policies, and pathways to restoring full citizenship. We want changes that focus on results of a more prosperous, safe, and successful society rather than the process of keeping people in confinement when confinement no longer serves the mission

As Michael said at the conclusion of the video, it won’t be  a quick fix. He uses the analogy of turning a supertanker. That is our mission: long-term change that starts with real stories, real people—and real results.

A New Kind of Hope

I’m just starting out, but already I see what Michael means when he says:

“Nobody should work harder than the individual.”

I’m living that reality. I’ve got a second chance, and I want to help others find theirs. If you’re reading this and you’re still inside, or you’ve just come home, or even if you’re someone who wants to be part of the change—know this:

We believe in you.
We don’t charge a penny.
And we won’t ask you to do anything we didn’t do ourselves.

That’s the promise. That’s the mission.

And I’m proud to be part of it.

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