Category: The Beat Without

-John, San Quentin State Prison, CA The point of no return is the door to freedom from accountabilityNothing matters after the pointHowever, it is also the point when everything I do mattersWhen everything I do can’t matter to anyone elseWhen there is no more reason to be kind, be kind stillWhen there is no hope for the future, dream stillWhen there is no chance for changing, try stillWhen there is no love received, love stillWhen there is no expectation to be me, be meWhen there is no need for self-restraint, be calm stillWhen there is no freedom, be free.

-Monique, Correctional Facility in St. Gabriel, LA No one told Drake that his life would be interrupted by a thirty year prison sentence. Drake was the same as any young guy who had great potential. However, things changed drastically when he begins to get off track. Drake was born and raised in Southwest Louisiana in a city called Lake Charles. This is on the Northside, which everyone knows as Goo Sport for the hood terminologies. Drake lost his dad at the age of fourteen. So, his only father figure and the only man he knew was taken from him too

-Frederick, United States Penitentiary Tucson in Tucson, AZ In this series of essays, I wanted to write for those with loved ones in prison, to give them hope that nothing is impossible. Sadly, most want to believe that, but have resolved to accept the sad, “Fact,” that their loved ones in prison are doomed.  For them, “There ain’t no sunshine.” So, I’m listening to a special version of the song, “Ain’t No Sunshine,” originally by Bill Withers. This version that I have, however, is the Lido Remix, which is a very cool version of the classic song. I’m using this

-James, San Quentin State Prison, CA I have to believe that it’s still possible to stand my life even, to create a better life for myself, one with meaning and worth of living.  At sixty two years old I don’t have a lot to be proud of. I have spent less than a year and a half in the real world since I was 18 years old. There just has to be more to life than these concrete walls, steel bars, and prison blues. I didn’t truly believe that I didn’t think there would be much point in going on

-Scott, Correctional Facility in Chino, CA “The links between a bizarre time perception, and an indeterminate future” There’s a peculiar sort of deformed time experience called inner time where a smaller unit of time, like a day seems endless, and a larger unit of time, like a week seems to pass more rapidly. In the history, of our peoples there are only five distinct social groups known to experience this warped perception of time. World War I POW’s, prisoners in the death camps during the holocaust, chronic tuberculosis patients of the 19th and early 20th century, unemployed coal miners of

-Frederick Mason, USP Tucson in Tucson, AZ To this point, I’ve written nearly six hundred essays from USP Tucson, but before I was sent here, I was writing at other places. In fact, I’ve been writing since about the third or forth grade, on through high school, through college and beyond. But I remember writing a scary story and I did it as a co-op project with a juvenile while in county jail. I didn’t realize how it affected others, but it is a reminder that writers can have an impact on others, even if it’s of the horror genre. 

-Daniel Ballard, San Quentin State Prison, CA When I was younger I had dreams. Then I came to a realization, around fifteen or sixteen years old that I defined a dream of what actually a dream was: just a dream. Nothing more, nothing less, due to the fact that I can lay down tonight, close my eyes and dream of something or someone I have no knowledge of and feel very distant from.  So, my actual dream is a goal, something while I’m wide eyed awake that can be placed and put into a proper perspective. While doing so, I

-Jimmy Lee Bozeman II, Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York To those who take time to read this inscription of a chapter within a book I am currently composing while incarcerated inside a United State’s Federal Correctional Institution. This is concerning The United State’s Justice System, black criminal justice, the African American community and portions of my life as it relates to the three. At this time, I am serving a twelve and a half year sentence for the crime of unarmed bank robbery. My hometown is Kansas City, Missouri. Within the fifty years inside the criminal justice system,

-Marco Garcia, San Quentin State Prison, CA Mistakes are a natural part of life but at times some of us, as myself, could go too far. It’s sad to say but my biggest mistake is the thing that gave me my authentic self. Why you ask? Well, it’s because many of us, as myself, go through life pretending to be something that we are not.  Many of us, as myself, may go through life without the knowledge of change. It may be easier for us to hold onto the shame and pain. Well, the real courage is to change and

-Mark Peacock, Vacaville, CA Glad to hear that the spirit is still alive, and I am very grateful that there are like minded brothers and sisters out there! I wasn’t born until 1962, so I missed out on everything that had happened back then. I had an older brother who grew up then, and he would come home and talk about how things used to be in those days.  Even though they were out of style in the seventies, he would often wear striped bell bottoms and leather sandals. I never asked if they were Birkenstocks or not. He always