January 25, 2026: Sunday

Build and Build

Bringing our mission to the next level requires more than ideas. It requires people.

This week, I’m enthusiastic to share that two individuals have officially joined the Prison Professors team: Celeste and Erin. Their stories reflect not only growth and redemption, but also the kind of leadership we need to build systems that last.

I wrote about Celeste yesterday, before driving to Oceanside to meet her and her friend Breck. Celeste has volunteered with Prison Professors for more than a year. During that time, she helped introduce the Profiles program to others, built her own extraordinary record of preparation, and demonstrated what it means to lead by example. Now, as a paid member of our team, I’m confident that her full-time commitment will allow us to expand our reach and deepen our impact.

Yesterday, we also brought Erin on board.

Erin began working with us several years ago. She earned a degree in accounting and built a small business providing accounting services to others. Later, authorities charged her with a crime, which led to her serving a term in prison. I got to know Erin while she was preparing for that journey.

Throughout her sentence, Erin continued working through Prison Professors programs. She documented her efforts, remained disciplined, and stayed focused on preparation. The Bureau of Prisons ultimately released her to serve the final portion of her sentence in a halfway house. I’m pleased to announce that Erin will now assist us with managing our bookkeeping—bringing both professional expertise and lived experience to the role.

With Celeste’s help, we can provide better service to more than 5,300 people in federal prison who are actively using Prison Professors to prepare for success upon release. With Erin’s help, we can be more transparent and precise in showing what it takes to sustain and grow this organization responsibly.

Equally important, we are intentional about creating income opportunities for formerly incarcerated people. Reentry into the workforce is one of the most difficult hurdles people face after prison. Many are ready to work, eager to contribute, and qualified—yet they encounter resistance. Society has a tendency to look at a person’s criminal record, and conclude that the individual is not worthy of employment. Part of our mission is to change such perceptions.

• We believe that preparation should lead somewhere. When people use our programs to recalibrate, document effort, and demonstrate growth, we want that work to translate into meaningful income opportunities.

Although I must be a good steward of capital, and use our resources wisely, I am committed to building pathways for reforms that will help people show they’re worthy of a higher level of liberty, and to showing them how to build multiple income streams upon release. The process starts by memorializing all the ways a person is ready to become a fully functioning member of society, and it’s never too early or too late to start.

To the extent we are able, we are building bridges with employers and partners who are willing to look beyond a conviction and focus on character, consistency, and demonstrated readiness. Our goal is not charity; it is credibility. By helping people establish a legitimate work history, earn income, and contribute productively, we support their transition back into society as full participants—taxpayers, coworkers, and community members. This is another way we align preparation with purpose and reinforce the belief that people can grow beyond the worst decisions of their past.

The Larger Goals We’re Working Toward

As I build the team, I must also keep our long-term objectives top of mind. If I step back and think in big terms, those goals include:

1. Mechanisms to Earn Freedom: Ideally, I’d like to see the reinstatement of U.S. parole—or legislation that empowers an independent agency to assess whether continued incarceration makes sense for people who have worked hard to reconcile, grow, and prepare for law-abiding lives.
2. Pathways to Work Release: The Bureau of Prisons already has authority over where people serve their sentences. For individuals who demonstrate commitment, accountability, and readiness, pathways should open for work release—allowing them to earn income, pay taxes, and support their families while living in less restrictive environments.
3. Expanded Use of Furloughs: The agency could incentivize excellence by offering furloughs of up to 30 days to people who are clearly earning higher levels of liberty through documented effort.
4. Clemency Filters: We should create transparent filters that allow the Pardon Czar to identify people who are working the hardest in prison to prepare for success—and who may be worthy of forgiveness.
5. Early Termination of Supervised Release: Probation officers should have access to clear records showing a person’s self-directed preparation inside prison. Those records should be used as credible resources when evaluating whether early termination of supervised release makes sense.

How to Achieve Goals?

I’m always thinking about how the decisions we’re making today will lead to the success we want to see in the months, years, and decades ahead. We know the strategy, but we also must implement tactics. For now, our tactics follow:

• We must engage more people in our Profiles system.
• We must continue offering more resources without charge to anyone willing to document how they’re using time today to prepare for success tomorrow.
• And we must use the data we collect—through profiles, points, and leaderboards—as persuasive evidence in our advocacy for reform.

To support that effort, I’m spending time today building a corporate sponsorship page for our website. It will live under the “Donate” section and help businesses understand how they can participate in addressing what I believe is one of the greatest social injustices of our time. With corporate sponsorship, we can generate more resources to offer more opportunities to incentivize the pursuit of excellence. I expect to finish that project today, with hopes that our development team can build the page and make it live this week–along with our new “Faculty” page, which I’m super excited about offering.

Building, Breaking, and Building Again

Real progress doesn’t come from a straight line. It comes from a cycle: build, break, rebuild, train, and build again. That’s a lesson I learned from leaders while I served 9,500 days in prison. It has helped me grow, and I’m using the strategy to advance our advocacy efforts, step by step. We must focus on growth, on creating opportunities that do not currently exist. It is how we teach people to live as if they are the CEO of their own lives.

I’m grateful for the team we’re building—and for everyone in our community who aligns with this mission of building more pathways for people to earn freedom through merit.