Category: The Beat Without

-Noava How do you go from where you are at, to where you want to be? I had to work very hard to get to where I am today. It takes a lot of enthusiasm and hard work. I have goals and plans.  Number one key is taking care of self, first. I dream big and I manifest my freedom every day. I sweat hard and I am dedicated to be making amends by training dogs to help people in need who have disabilities.  I work hard every day, and I set my dreams ahead of me one day at

-Jose, San Quentin State, CA My message to all addicts is have hope. Have faith in your higher power God or whoever is your motivation to change. You have to know that you could not change by your own understanding. I know because I did try many times to let my addictions go, but I couldn’t do it on my own.  I needed God to help me come out of the hole that I was in. I tried it all, using different drugs, mixing, leaving one for the other and I still couldn’t. I remember going to groups of NA,

-Paul, Vacaville, CA The most important relationship is with yourself. That relationship defines all other relationships that you interact with in your life. The relationship with yourself is based upon your beliefs, values about yourself and the world.  This brings you to a naughty place known as your world views, which come from your environment. Your environment takes into account your parents, teachers, and the culture. How you communicate with yourself daily empowers you to project positivity back to you from other people and situations, in respect to the relationship that you have with yourself.  You cannot trust your emotions

-Anthony, Pine Knot, KY I don’t really like to talk about confidence because it has the tendency to rub people the wrong way as if I’m demonstrating exaggerated confidence. Although I am reluctant to do so, I’m about to bestow an element of surprise upon your young life that I hope inspires you to be the one to improve reality and save humanity. I was young when I began serving my 737 month sentence and I felt hopeless being shuttled from jail to jail prior to prison facility designation. The light at the end of the tunnel seemed like a

-Saul, Vacaville, CA Words from the wise, “Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?” Bob Marley. Currently, I am conflicted because this is not the ideal situation.  Being in prison is not how my life was supposed to go, but I do see it as a blessing in disguise. If I would’ve continued on the path that I was on, it was only a matter of time for my lifestyle would catch up to me. I felt it creeping up on me. Death was roaming and trying to grasp me.  Now, I will be

-Mr. Shuck, Vacaville, CA What’s out there in the beautiful clear night? It’s a beautiful night, no clouds are out, not even a moon. There are stars. What I see when I look up out into the night into the infinite universe.  I look up as far as I can see up. I see hope as I get lost into my thoughts of what I want to be, as I’m daydreaming into the beautiful clear night, infinite universe. I see me in a time, a place, with my family, doing things that are simple. Where we are all there eating dinner.  All

-Barry, Mt Sterling, IL It was in my preteen years when my father taught my brother and I one of many valuable lifelong lessons. Of course, at the time I had no idea what that lesson was, just that we had to do something neither of us cared to do.  My father was in the military, stationed with our family in Panama in Central America. Our home sat approximately half a mile from the Panama Canal, so watching the massive ships travel through the docks became a daily experience.  My brother (who is a year and a half older than

-Titenesha, Central California Women’s Facility (CCCWF) in Chowchilla, CA We can trudge any road if we choose too, we have to want to choose the right path. In life we are challenged to do better. That’s why we are given second chances.  However, if we did what we were supposed to in the first place we wouldn’t be faced with having to check ourselves or get ourselves out of the rut that we put ourselves in.  My daughter came to prison with me because she was missing out on what other little girls had and that was a mother. So,

James, San Quentin State Prison, CA A former member of the Aryan Brotherhood and a Black Panther, what would bring these two men together? After decades of fighting and killing each other on California’s prison yards, two veterans of these wars, have managed to put their past differences behind them and form a meaningful friendship.  It all started with an idea that more needed to be done to assist aging prisoners. Called the B Number Project, it was formed after two employees at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center saw a need to try to help prisoners in their seventies and

-Andre, California Medical Facility (CMF) in Vacaville, CA I got caught up in the streets on accident. I was a nerd and an athlete growing up. When I was fourteen, I was robbed at gunpoint. That feeling of helplessness and fear led me to having a mindset of, I’ll never let anyone do me or one of my siblings like that again. I got a gun from a neighborhood thug and proceeded to push my weight around in the streets. The streets are a place of freedom, adrenaline rushes and excitement. It’s also the fear of death or harm. Untrusting