Letters From Inside the Prison

Petty Officers by Mike Powers One of the things I love about the American heritage is that we have a great distaste for pettiness. We find it aggravating and offensive when others “lord it over” us, especially about trivial things. Well, if any of you are even remotely considering a criminal act, BEWARE, because when […]

Freedom Isn’t Free by Mike Powers [Adapted from a presentation given to the Therapeutic Community on my wing here at the Hightower Unit by myself.] For years, British and American intelligence services and the troop divisions assigned to them had been working tirelessly to pull off the biggest bluff in the history of warfare since

Have’s / Have Not’s By Jay Goodman Let’s take a look at the differences in social standings in Texas. The Lone Star State has from its inception created two different classes of people. Those who are considered the upper crust, and then there are those who get the privilege to serve their betters. Where else

The Law Library just Another TDCJ Smokescreen? By Jay Goodman Dealing with the law is not an easy task, for one, it can be difficult to understand because there is not just one set of rules. There is state law and federal law, and for a person who has never dealt with the law-at all,

How Precious Life Truly Is By Jay Goodman I look around me inside the cell block I live in and everyone seems oblivious to life. Yes, there are a lot of good people who do have good intentions, but even they seem to get caught up in the BS that prisoners do. Like what’s watched

Institutionalized Is Not A Lifestyle By Jay Goodman Over the last 15 years of my incarceration I have met thousands of different types of individuals in prison. And I have studied my fellow prisoners a lot harder than most other people do because of the book I began writing back in 2008. I have written

Perseverance Over Weaknesses Can Be Achieved By Jay Goodman As I’ve sat here in prison the last 15 years, I have taken a long look at myself, both the good and the bad. I thought a lot about what I was going to do both in here and when I left prison. At first my

Common Courtesy Goes a Long Way and Both Ways By Jay Goodman  A lot of times it seems that both the prisoners and the guards just go through each day aimlessly unaware of everything going on around them. It’s like they forget that they are even human beings, who other than their uniforms separate them

Rehabilitation Starts Within Yourself By Jay Goodman Inside the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, you’ll hear the word “rehabilitation”, used every day. It’s a word that I’ve really wondered many times if people understand the true meaning? In my Webster dictionary it says: rehabilitation is to restore to a former capacity; to restore to good

Becoming Successful is Based on Self Reflection By Jay Goodman I started writing the Puppetmasters, back in 2008, after three officers took me into a cell in isolation and put a noose around my neck, while I was handcuffed, because I would not stop writing Grievances about the abuses I witnessed on the elderly and