Chapter 9: Proverbs 23:1 - The Cell Next Door

When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you.

Walking down the extremely long corridor of Dodge Correctional Institution, I thought about what the brother had just told me.  How could he just sit on such information?  "How could he be so complacent in his situation?  He was sentenced to life in prison.  Chris is never going home.  I couldn't relate, but if it was me, I would be trying to get some type of fighting chance.  The thought of spending life behind bars was just crazy because I had spent my whole life behind bars thus far.  My entire time of being incarcerated, all I did was look forward to going home.  My end goal was to be released, and that's what motivated me.  If I had no release date, then I would have nothing to look forward to and nothing to motivate me.  It was both unsettling and admirable to think of what was motivating Chris.  "My clinical psychologist was beautiful, so it was hard to open up to her.  Also, there has only been one or maybe two clinicians who have actually helped me, and it wasn't this one, but more recent.  My court had been delayed once again because of COVID 19.  I was stuck in this non prisoner status longer, where I didn't have any of the privileges that other inmates had, but I had all of the same bullshit rules to follow, figures.  I would be stuck in Dodge, so I was going to continue to make the best of it and finish the book project that Chris and I had started. 

Perhaps we could both get back in court on appeal as well.  It would be a lot of work, it would be a task more difficult than others, but not exactly impossible.