6. Working Toward Reform

When I finished my sentence, I had to work toward financial stability. I launched businesses and began investing. My real passion, however, was working toward reforms. From experience, I knew that our nation incarcerated too many people, and those people served sentences that were far too long. To make meaning of the time I served, I wanted to work toward reforms.

The preparation that had helped me through confinement became the basis for educational work I could offer to others. I began writing courses, filming videos, distributing books I wrote. I began speaking in universities and in other events to promote the idea of reforms.

Andy Matevousian, then the warden at the federal prison in Atwater, invited me to contribute to his prison. His invitation opened the opportunity to develop educational programming that encouraged people to prepare systematically for success after release. Andy’s support helped us bring our programs to more institutions across the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Expanding that work also served a broader purpose. The main reform I wanted to work toward would be to open pathways for people to earn freedom through merit. In my view, we would improve the outcomes of incarceration if we incentivized the pursuit of excellence. Our country measured justice by requiring people to languish in prison while calendar pages turned. A better approach, in my view, would be to measure justice by how hard a person worked to prepare for success upon release.

I formed Prison Professors to provide self-directed educational programs for people inside. Then, I did my best to collect data, showing that people who worked through our programs were more inclined to succeed upon release. I used the information I collected to build stronger arguments. Those efforts could support advocacy for more incentives.

The First Step Act became law in December 2018 with bipartisan support. It marked a major development in federal prison and sentencing reform. Among its provisions, the law created opportunities for eligible people to earn time credits through successful participation in approved programs and productive activities.

Putting those provisions into practice took time. In January 2022, the Justice Department announced the rule implementing the law’s time-credit program. Throughout the continuing work of implementation, we sought to bring our courses to more institutions and strengthen support for policies that recognize preparation.

Our advocacy continues. We want policymakers and administrators to see how incentives can encourage people to prepare for successful lives after release. When people understand how their choices may create opportunities for greater liberty, they have additional reasons to invest in education, develop skills, contribute to their communities, and document their progress.

As I write this workbook, several thousand people in the federal system are working through our lessons. We encourage people already in prison, as well as those entering the system, to begin developing a comprehensive mitigation strategy.

You can begin from wherever you are today. Learn about the stages ahead, consider the outcomes you want to pursue, and decide what work could strengthen your position. The chapters that follow will help you develop your own approach to pursuing the highest level of liberty, at the soonest possible time.

Exercise: Prepare for a Future Opportunity

Choose an opportunity you would like to pursue at a later stage of your journey. You might want someone to offer you a job, support an educational goal, or consider a request for greater liberty.

Imagine that the opportunity has arrived. Someone will review your request and decide how to respond. What would you want that person to know about how you prepared?

Write a journal entry exploring these questions:

1. What outcome do I want? Describe the opportunity and how it connects to the life you want to build.
2. Whose perspective should I consider? Identify someone who could influence that outcome. What questions might that person have about you?
3. What story do I want my preparation to tell? Consider how education, contributions to others, and a support network could help you develop that story.
4. What choices does that preparation require? Identify something you could begin this week. What would you need to spend less time doing to make room for it?
5. What record do I want to build? Describe what you would like to add to your profile over time so that, when the opportunity arrives, you have something to share.