30. Develop your Profile

Once you open your profile, you have a place to begin documenting how you are preparing for the life ahead. What you build in that space depends on your decisions. Each entry can help you explain your circumstances, develop your thinking, and show the steps you are taking toward your goals.

I encourage you to approach this project as part of your comprehensive mitigation strategy. Consider who may review your record later.

• What would help a prison administrator, probation officer, prospective employer, or other person understand how you have used your time?

Your profile gives you a way to organize that information. The four main sections—biography, journals, book reports, and release plans—allow you to explain different parts of your preparation. Collectively, participants’ records also help Prison Professors demonstrate why people working toward better outcomes should have opportunities to earn greater liberty through merit.

Develop Your Biography

Begin by introducing yourself in your own voice. Describe the experiences and influences that shaped your life, the decisions that brought you to your current circumstances, and what you have learned. Help readers understand the person you are working to become.

Your biography can develop through multiple entries. You might write one entry about your upbringing, another about your education or work, and another about a decision that changed your direction. Give each entry a title that helps readers understand the subject.

Consider how those experiences influence the life you want to build. If you recognize a pattern of poor decisions, explain what you have learned and how you intend to respond differently. As you gain experience, add to your story. Readers should be able to see how your understanding develops.

Use Journals to Document Your Work

Journal entries show what you are doing with your time. Write about something you studied, a challenge you faced, a responsibility you fulfilled, or a contribution you made.

Go beyond listing activities. Explain why you chose an activity and how the experience relates to your goals. If your plan changed, describe what you learned and how you adjusted.

The questions throughout this series and our Playbook can help you begin. Choose a question, write your response, and develop your answer into a journal entry. You can return to the same question later to explain how experience has changed your perspective.

Date your writing and give each entry a descriptive title. Over time, those entries can show consistency, resourcefulness, and progress.

Follow a Structure for Book Reports

Reading gives you access to ideas and experiences beyond your immediate surroundings. A book report helps you explain how you are using those ideas to prepare.

For each report, include:

1. Book title.
2. Author.
3. Why I chose this book.
4. What I learned.
5. How these lessons can help me achieve success, as I define success.

Use your own words to develop the three reflective sections. Explain the ideas that influenced your thinking and connect those ideas to your circumstances.

For example, a book about leadership might prompt you to examine how you respond when someone challenges your opinion. Your report could explain the lesson and a change you intend to practice. A later journal entry could describe an occasion when you applied that lesson.

This approach allows readers to follow the connection between learning and decisions.

Keep Developing Your Release Plan

Your release plan explains what you want to accomplish and how you intend to prepare. Include a SWOT analysis: your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Consider housing, future earning capacity, education, health, family responsibilities, and the support you will need. Identify resources, likely obstacles, and steps you can take now.

Give your goals milestones you can measure. Review your plan regularly; a quarterly update provides a useful starting schedule. Explain what you completed, what changed, and what you will pursue next.

Include Other Evidence of Preparation

Use the additional profile sections to publish certificates and collect testimonials. Explain how a completed course fits your goals. Invite people who know your work to describe what they have observed.

A teacher, mentor, employer, or someone you helped may offer a perspective that strengthens the record. Their specific observations can give others reasons to have confidence in you.

Build Through Consistent Participation

Our free Playbook provides lessons and exercises you can use to develop your profile. Set a writing schedule and begin with the resources available.

Choose one section to develop this week. Write an entry, identify the next action your reflection suggests, and schedule time to follow through. Your profile should show how your plans lead to action and how those actions prepare you for the next opportunity.

For each entry, I recommend writing between 325 and 400 words. That length gives you room to develop a thought and qualifies for the full two individual points available per written entry. Consistent participation can help you advance on our leaderboard. Writing regularly also gives you practice organizing ideas, explaining decisions, and communicating with others—skills that may strengthen your future earning capacity.