Category: Piece of the Week

-E, Sonoma  Paying attention to what people say, body language, and their overall behavior — there is much to pay attention to in this world.  Sometimes we’re moving too fast and we really need to slow life down in order to appreciate our blessings and enjoy the moments we have. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking about the future or sulking in the past, but this will only trap you in this mindset.  Regardless if you are incarcerated, you need to pay attention to your life, to others you love, and new people you meet. Find something to

-The Real Trix, Santa Cruz Today, I’ma write about who I turn to when life gets hard. To be completely honest, I don’t feel I have anyone I can truly turn to when shhh gets hard. Don’t get me wrong — if I need a place to crash for a night or two, I got people, or if I need to borrow a couple bucks.  But when it comes to emotional support or moral support or even just someone to vent/talk to, I don’t feel I got no one. I have to say I’ve always been my own rock. At

-JG, Stanislaus My grandparents are my best friends. Growing up I was usually always getting in trouble because they are very strict, but not as much no more. There’s a lot as to why, but now I know they just wanted the best for me.  It’s too late now, but I should have listened to them. I do regret a lot of the things I’ve done, but I wouldn’t take it back because we have a good relationship now. To be honest I’d do it all over again. What I would take back though is some of the things I’ve

-Kente, Santa Cruz I cry when my emotions are all over the place, when I am feeling sad or mad or frustrated all at the same time and they just all come out. Sometimes I can’t control it and it just comes out.  The last time I cried was last Tuesday when I was in court listening to my parents talk about how much I’m a good kid and the judge still decided to not let me come home and be with my family all over again. I wasn’t alone. I had my lovely lawyer right next to me making

-Jose, Santa Clara  After more than three years of being incarcerated, I have developed and created a vision that I once never had. For so many years, I was blinded to the fact that there was so much more that being contained in a single environment that is built to keep the people of color down.  The system that those so-called good Samaritans “government”  implemented on our people, was to “teach us a lesson” or to break bad habits, but all it’s done is just make us more mad and more hungry.  Some individuals will never get out of the

–Efrain, Sonoma   The Beat Within — where you can express your thoughts, emotions, and qualities to the world.  I remember my first Beat a couple years back. I thought that writing wasn’t all that, and that it wasn’t my thing until Michael convinced me to write something. At first, it was small because I thought, “Writing is not what gang members do,” but over time the topics and talks started to hit home.  I found myself writing more and more. It was a way I was able to express how I felt. I started writing on my free time. It

-A, Sacramento Recently, I have been good until I came back here. But it’s not that bad because I might leave on the sixteenth. I am nervous because I’m gonna have a little one at the end of this month.  I personally am trying to keep my head up, but I keep getting that feeling that the judge is not gonna let me go home because of my charge. I feel like the juvenile system is not fair all the way because they don’t give us a release date.  But every day that I am in here and my court

-DLR, Sacramento  I identify myself as a good man and a God-fearing man. I hope it isn’t different than how my friends and family see me, but I think they see me the same.  If they see me differently it’s because they see the old me. I would like to change how people see me if they still see the old me because I am changing every day.  A decision that was incredibly challenging for me was to take a plea deal for my case. I had the option to go through trial or take three years, even though I’d

-Heart Broken, Stanislaus To be honest, I feel like the hardest decision I’ve ever made was probably to stop giving my love to my first love. Reason is because at first sight, I was so in love with her I almost felt like we was meant to be.  Every day I felt like I needed to talk to her to see her or something that gave me some type of contact with her. She was selling the dream so good I almost felt like it was real until she kept on cheating, and even then I thought it was somewhat

-Fred, San Francisco  Hard work to me means getting through the day without doing anything that might get me in trouble.  Hard work to me also means taking care of siblings when my parents are out because it’s always something going on between them. I’ll have to decide what I should do to keep them from hurting each other or messing up around the house.  I know that my mom has a hard time waking all of my siblings up for school because my siblings go to different schools and she has to take the little ones to school somewhere