Chapter 2: Proverbs 23:12 - The Cell Next Door

Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.

Dodge Correctional Institution is an intake prison, where all inmates are housed until shipped off to their next destination.  Dodge figures out where exactly that is by staffing the inmates' needs and determining their custody level. Dodge is a max, though it is run like a medium custody prison. However, if you are intake like me, you are considered A&E status. This means you are treated worse than a max custody inmate because you cannot order electronics, books, clothes, shoes, or anything.  Nothing at all.  It's rough, and I was stuck on this status for 23 months due to Marathon County probation and parole not wanting me in society at all.  COVID 19 also structured my probation revocation process. 

I began writing a book called Poetic Knowledge.  It was about the knowledge of God, basically through my poetry.  I published a book in 2013 called A Blessing in Disguise.  So, I was at it again, trying to be productive instead of crying about my afflictions.  At night, Chris would pray for us, and the prayers were very well put together.  I asked him one night if he had written that.  "No, they just came to me."  He replied.  "Well, maybe try writing one down." I suggested.  He said, "Okay, perhaps I'll do that."  Then we went to sleep. 

The next morning, when our cell doors popped open for time in the day room, Chris handed me two prayers he had written.  I set them on my bed to review after day room was finished.  That short period was for our phone time.  Chris would call his parents, his sister, or Anna, who was his girlfriend at the time.  She was the kindest woman I had ever met.  We would bring our Bibles with us to the day room.  We would try bringing other inmates, as well as officers, to the Lord.  "You know that book I am writing called Poetic Knowledge?"  I asked Chris through the electrical outlet on the wall.  "Yeah, the spiritual poems?  I like those." he replied.  "What would you think about coauthoring a book where book one will be my entries and book two will be your entries?"  He says, "Let's do it."  "Do you think you could get it published?" he asked.  "I did it once, so I'm pretty certain I can."  Every time he wrote his entries, he would give them to me when our cell doors would pop open for our time in the day room.  

Time was going by, and I was growing restless in Dodge.  I hated doing the same exact thing every day.  I still couldn't order from J. L. Marcus or Union Supply.  I was not yet staffed or even a state prisoner yet.  Chris ordered clothes, envelopes, and stuff for me, which was not allowed.  Later, we would get in trouble for the unauthorized transfer of property.  Hollywood tabloids and YouTube content creators would twist this completely out of context, causing people on social media to do the same.