by CC, Sacramento Dear young reader – Life comes with no guarantees. Mistakes can become accomplishments. And accomplishments can become mistakes. Your life is what you make of it and so much more. Learn from others’ mistakes…learn from your own. There is no secret. Millions of people living in poverty. It is no secret that we all lose people close to us. There are no secrets about life. Understand that life is a gift, how you interpret the gift is all up to you. No matter your circumstance, always make sure you have a fighting chance at life. People may
Continue ReadingMissing My Baby’s Special Day
by CT, Sacramento I swear this is the hardest part and time of my life. I never thought I would be here on December 7th, 2021. This day is far more important than any day of the year. Three hundred sixty-five days and this one day I was supposed to do something special. This is my daughter’s first birthday! No one can understand the pain that I have today. I’m supposed to be there and I’m not. I was supposed to be there to help blow out her candles and give her kisses all over her beautiful face. I miss
Continue ReadingMy Life, Continues
JJEM, San Mateo Previously on “My Life”, after Steven had a seizure, he was unconscious then three minutes later he woke up out of the blue, but he wasn’t himself at all. When I sat him on the bench, he was just mumbling to himself and he was whispering whenever he talked to us. He also started vomiting and Georgie brought water for him because I asked him to so he could drink. Then I asked Georgie to look for the ice cream man so he could buy us something to eat. But when he came back, he said he
Continue ReadingNature’s Best Medicine: Nature
by Leo Cardez, Dixon Correctional Center in Dixon, Illinois In prison, most of us spend our days bathed in fluorescent lighting starring at four walls. If we’re lucky maybe we have a TV or the occasional gym or yard recreational time. Most prisons are iron and concrete edifices; cold, austere human warehouses. Our separation from society is court mandated and unquantifiable painful, but our separation from the natural world is quantifiably damaging to our health and psyche. We came to prison as punishment, not for punishment. Our connection to nature is far more important to our cognition and other aspects
Continue ReadingHoobie
by Richard Zamora, Centinela State Prison in Imperial, CA Hi, my name is Richard Zamora and I’m a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. I’m proud to say that I’ve been sober for three and a half wonderful years. Please allow me a minute of your time to share with you my experience with drugs and alcohol. I used drugs and drank alcohol for the same reasons a lot of others did. The main reason being I was numbing the pain I had been feeling for so many years. Growing up I felt like no one loved me, cared for me
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Volume 27.01/02
Please contact Lisa Lavaysse if you would like to purchase the full PDF or a printed copy of this issue.
Continue ReadingEd Note 27.01/02
Happy New Year! Welcome to our first issue, 27.01/02, of the new year! Thank you all for your time and work and for playing such a vital role in this one of a kind publication we know and love, The Beat Within. For 25 plus years we have been doing the graet work and this magazine is proof! Thank you all for being a part of this journey and embracing with us this latest chapter, 2022. Without further ado, lets’ pass the keyboard to our dear friend and colleague, OT! Welcome! It’s OT once again reporting live to you from
Continue ReadingTrusting Yourself Is Trusting Your Power
by LL, Sacramento What “trust your power” means to me, is to trust the intelligence you have. When I hear “trust your power”, I think of it as words of wisdom. Many people in the world have different capabilities and don’t use them to their fullest. Trusting your power is like trusting yourself in some sort. We get put in situations we don’t want to be in every day. We make changes by the mind. Everything we do is a power. Waking up, eating, walking, talking. It’s all a power. You just gotta trust it. For example, let’s say you
Continue ReadingLife Lessons
D’ercey, San Francisco Before I came to jail, I was out doing bad. I was gon’ keep doing the same thing ‘till I came here. I learned my lesson I swear this time. I learned because life is short, I got a lot to lose. I swear I love my family and if something was to happen to them, I would be hurt, so that’s why I am changing my life. When I get out of here, I will change. Everybody ain’t your friend. Somebody might want to be your friend but is really trying to use you. That’s why
Continue ReadingThat Night Still Haunts Me
by G, Sacramento Everyone at one point in their life faces some sort of difficulty. That’s just my life. My father died six years ago, when I was eleven years old. And still just thinking about that right now makes me panic. I can’t stop the panic. I can’t think, I can’t breathe. It doesn’t stop and I try to ignore it and I get angry and sad and hopeless, and it doesn’t stop. Cut, burn, scratch myself, pain, and it helps it to stop. My dad was nice, my dad was caring. I loved my dad. I remember I
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