-Lucas, Foothills Correctional Institution in Phoenix, MD
Dear Beat Within Team,
I hope this finds you doing well and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be introduced to you. My name is Lucas, and I am a writer, an artist, a friend, mentor, and a supportive father to my seventeen-year-old son Logan. He is my world. I also have one younger brother Adam, who is a personal trainer in Asheville, NC.
I have two loving and recently retired parents, Donna and Marty. We are all still very close to one another. Prior to my incarceration, I became severely dependent on opiates and alcohol. I made a multitude of poor choices that were fueled by addiction, and they were the source of much pain and suffering for many people around me over the years.
This lifestyle ultimately resulted in a car accident while I was driving under the influence and two people tragically lost their lives. I hold myself accountable for this terrible occurrence and will live with the weight of its burden forever. I was incarcerated July of 2011, and my current release date is in 2055.
After the accident and leading into my incarceration, hopelessness became my companion. It was accompanied by a deep despair that plagued me constantly on account of my actions. I had never wanted to hurt someone, yet I did.
A few years into my incarceration a friendship ensued with another incarcerated individual named Danny. Unbeknownst to him, he challenged me to look deeply at my life and truly evaluate it. Through his spiritual example and his daily interactions with others. I saw something that was lacking in my life, which was a true purpose in the form of helping others.
After some serious contemplation, addiction therapy, and spiritual seeking, I was able to overcome the mountain of addiction. I began the process of developing and refining my values, character, and integrity that would come to define me.
In 2017, I was provided a chance to enroll in the North Carolina Field Minister Program. This program eventually provided me with an opportunity to earn a four year bachelor’s degree in Pastoral Ministry and Counseling, while also establishing a platform for reaching out and helping others.
I considered the great impact Danny had on my life, and how through his example and friendship, my life was changed. I felt an overwhelming need to become a catalyst for change in someone else’s life and determined to give this purpose my all.
I graduated in December of 2021, and was sent to Foothills Correctional in February of 2022. Over the last three years while deployed here at Foothills Correctional as a Field Minister there have been some obstacles, but with them a plethora of individuals whose lives have truly been changed.
Each day I seek to help prepare the guys here for success in the future by demonstrating the importance of accountability, having purpose in life, and a general sense of direction. Some will go home soon, and others have lengthy sentences, yet they all have needs.
They need inspiration to sign up for school in order to educate themselves or to enter vocational programs that will provide them with potential career opportunities. They need warnings to avoid trouble, drugs, and the gang life.
Furthermore, they need encouragement to live with integrity and to develop a healthy plan for the future. I truly hope the guys in here would develop a desire for betterment in life, and a drive to be successful upon release from prison.
Today, I aspire to positively influence, encourage, teach, correct, and guide others to make better choices and develop plans. I hope they might become better individuals, ones who are focused on cultivating a path to betterment in the future.
I feel a special pull in my heart to help those who are younger and going down the wrong path, for those caught in the snares of addiction, and especially for those with children.
Enclosed are a few poems and essays that discuss the impact of education on recidivism. If you are willing or able to use this essay or other future works, please let me know.
Thank you so much for your time and your efforts.