Category: The Beat Without

-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

-Kelon, San Quentin State Prison, CA In giving a voice to the juveniles and those who experience the writing workshop, The Beat cradles the soul safely. I say this as a fifty-year-old man in his twenty-sixth year of incarceration, whose desire and need to speak often fell upon ears of misguided guidance. What I witness from The Beat is the opportunity for one to speak their truth. It’s not to glorify a lifestyle or ideal but rather speak truth from their experience. Often times what the youth in juvenile hall imagine is the truth that shapes the lens of their

-Mr. Positivity, San Quentin State Prison Some of the misconceptions I have from a lot of the free people is that since I am in prison that I want to use people to bring in drugs, or a cell phone, or tell a sob story to get out of prison.  So, most of the time I keep staff at a distance because I feel that they don’t really care. I am just another person in blue. We are all the same. Plus, I am a person of color, so that’s another thing.  If you’re black or Latino in here I

-Tommy, Santa Rosa, CA Dear Beat Within, I hope that this finds you in good health as well as in high spirits. I’m not sure if you recall, I wrote to you around 2019 or so to give you a reminder that should click… The first book anybody gave me was from you, all the way back in 1996! And the book was “Of Mice and Men…” I’m sorry that I never wrote back! I don’t have an excuse for doing so, and the true Taurus I am, I’m not gone bull shhh you with one. I’m now forty-three and

-Jesse,  San Quentin, CA I first met Dave in 2018, when the world was a different place. Dave had a perpetual smile and an attitude of gratitude. He reminded me of what a modern-day beatnik, or second generation hippie from the city, would look like.  He shook my hand firmly, excitement in his eyes, his first question was of course, “How did you hear about The Beat?”  I had just recently been transferred to San Quentin, from Valley State Prison, where I was taking part in a writing class. Upon arrival in West Block, I used the telephone and noticed