Category: The Beat Without

by Raymond Goins Hello young men and women. My name is Raymond Goins and I have spent more time in a cell than each one of you have spent alive on earth. I am currently serving a 28 year sentence because I believed that all I was was a badass, all I ever would be is a failure, and that I was destined to land here in prison.  I would like to take this opportunity to speak to you and tell you a bit about myself. However, before I do, please allow me to share with you another story. It

by Alexis A. Pamiroyan When I was a teenager, I looked in the mirror with no sense of direction. I wanted to be somebody? Young minded, I didn’t know who I wanted to be? So, I chose to follow and be like the rest. No father figure, one potential (father figure) but I didn’t give him a chance. A role model? If you asked me what that was, I’d tell you Robert De Niro in the gangster movie, “Goodfellas.”   Following others who were misguided, I became one of the homies. This took me down a path of criminality that

by Corey J. Elder I believe that prison can take many forms. One form of a prison is the issue of homelessness. Homelessness is a prison because it “locks up” human potential and creativity. And as a result the family, the community, and the society suffers. Many of those homeless are women and children. And to have women and children homeless is a tragedy that we may never recover from. Homelessness is crippling and debilitating. It demeans and devalues the human spirit. It oppresses ones hopes and dreams. And the longer one is homeless, the more damaging the results. We

by  Osbun Walton It was an early morning, uncommonly quiet, and with no movement because of a fog alert, yet people were going to different places, to work, to the yard or day room to play cards and chess. My cellie went on a visit. After my usual routine of cleaning up the cell, I had nothing else to do but relax, because I got my homework and letter writing finished last night.  My brother Timothy’s fifty-dollar JPAY to me was still sitting erect against the wall, middle ways on my bunk, which I received three day ago. A JPAY

by Roberto Figueroa  I write to you with pain in my heart, realizing that you walk the same path I once did. I write these words from Ironwood State Prison with a life sentence of 50 to life. I thought to myself how can I do my part to help someone in need? Not just someone, but a young person who has a promising future ahead of them, you are the future. So make it count.  From a young age I was influenced by my environment. It felt like choices were made for me, but here’s the reality, I made

by Derek Romero I used to be asked, “What I wanted to be growing up?” I didn’t know how to answer this truthfully. I had no notion or ideals of what was expected of me, like becoming someone with a religious background, which I strongly disagreed with. Me, a priest! Yeah, when pigs fly! I had perceptions and projections directed toward me at an early age to become the things my parents wanted me to be or do with my life.  They would say things such as they knew that I was smart, maybe smarter than my sister, and that

by Bobby Bostic Justice sounds fair. It is a good concept. It is a great word, but hundreds of thousands of prisoners such as myself wonder when will we ever find justice. Why does this word allude us? Why doesn’t the Constitution apply to us? All of the so-called “just” laws on the books sound good in theory but we keep seeking justice but she seems to escape our grasp.  The only people that we see getting even a little justice is those who are wealthy or have family connections. The vast majority of us feel like we will never

by Mikhail Markhasev I came to America at the age of ten. I could be whoever I wanted and whatever I chose. The problem was that I didn’t know who I was, what I wanted, or where I was headed. Less than a decade after coming to America, I was in prison, serving life without parole. How did I get from a good and humble kid, “fresh off the boat,” to a violent knucklehead who turned his back on his family and harmed innocent people? My path to prison began long before the dope or the homies or dropping out

by Michael Mackey Walking away may at times be one essential way for having a wise life, but on the other hand it may not be, depending on what it was you walked away from. Sometimes walking away is the path to freedom. Walking away from the hopes, the fears, the pain, the past, and the stories that have a hold on us, allows us to quiet our own minds, and open our hearts in a positive manner.  Never be scared, or have too much pride to walk away, trust and believe that with the courage you have within you,

by Bryan Wu It’s hard to describe the who, what, and why’s of how we feel at times. Especially when we’ve become accustomed to living in such a dishonest way for so long. Even we start to believe our own lies. Our greatest emotional fears become realities and it seems the more we attempt to avoid these “things,” the more evident and realistic they become. Until we become aware, recognize, and nurture these feelings we have, we will be unable to release ourselves from the confining ropes of negativity, knotted within our minds. As I sat there pretending to watch