Action and Accountability

Taking Action

We prepare ourselves for a better outcome when we take time to learn from others. The earlier lessons of our course profiled leaders such as Frederick Douglass, Halim Flowers, and Socrates. Those leaders show us the relevance of:

• Defining success
• Setting goals
• Moving forward with the right attitude
• Aspiring to the outcomes we want for our life

Yet unless we take incremental action steps, we never open opportunities. Without opening opportunities, we fail to position ourselves for the success we want.

An old proverb teaches us that if we want to know the journey ahead, we should ask people who have walked back. I remember getting that message from reading a story written during medieval times. The trilogy, known as The Divine Comedy, begins in a scary forest, which is a metaphor for darkness—or a predicament beyond what we take as being familiar.

Tommy Walker's Story

While preparing our course on Preparing for Success after Prison, I had a conversation with Tommy Walker, III. Authorities arrested Tommy and sentenced him to three life sentences. He served more than two decades inside the walls of the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg before the First Step Act opened an opportunity for release.

With a reputation for holding some of the most volatile people in federal prison, Lewisburg could darken a person's spirits. Tommy understood the bleakness of his sentence. The US Parole Commission did not have authority to release him. He would spend the rest of his life in prison unless:

• An appeals court vacated his sentence
• The President commuted his sentence
• Congress legislated a new law that the President signed

Despite those complications, Tommy chose to live productively. Living productively requires a person to have a plan, and to execute the plan with incremental action steps. Even if he had to spend his life inside of a federal prison, he could live with meaning, relevance, and dignity.

How? He could live for something bigger than his life. Instead of complaining about the sentence imposed, Tommy decided to become useful to others. He became a better reader, researcher, and writer.

Over time, Tommy developed skills in learning how to use esoteric resources in the prison's law library. He learned about the legal process, including decisions by District Court Judges, Circuit Court Judges, and Supreme Court Justices. He read about statutes, citations, and Court rules for Civil or Criminal procedure. Tommy became a master of the Prison Reform Litigation Act, administrative remedy process, and habeas corpus.

With those skills, Tommy served his community and he also served himself. Every day he could hold himself accountable, devoting hours to learning. Those actions kept him focused on becoming more useful to people in his community.

The First Step Act Opens Doors

In 2018, after 25 years inside, Tommy Walker, III had built an "extraordinary and compelling" record.

When President Trump signed the First Step Act, a mechanism opened for Tommy to argue for liberty. Since he served a triple-life sentence for crimes that included violence, he did not complain that Earned Time Credits did not apply to him. Instead, he seized upon other opportunities that the law opened, such as compassionate release.

The First Step Act empowers every person in prison to make an argument for compassionate release. To become a better candidate for relief, however, the person should show an "extraordinary and compelling" adjustment record.

Tommy Walker III provides us with an example of excellence. He understood that he could not change the past. Yet through his behavior, he could build a compelling record that would persuade others to view him through a different lens. A federal judge reviewed Tommy's petition and granted his release, allowing him to walk out of prison as a free man.

SWOT Analysis

To work toward the changes you want to see, you must consider your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Business leaders use an acronym to refer to this exercise. They call it a "SWOT" analysis.

Strengths: What is your greatest strength? Defining success and knowing what you want to achieve is critical. Since you hate being in prison, make a commitment to engineering a plan.

Weaknesses: What weaknesses do you need to overcome? Consider past decisions and what you haven't accomplished. These are areas for growth.

Opportunities: What opportunities exist for you to create change? How can you position yourself to seize those opportunities?

Threats: What threatens your progress? The culture of confinement does not foster an environment for learning. What obstacles do you face?