Category: The Beat Without

by Z In 2000, I was fourteen years old, in Los Angeles’s Skid Row. You wouldn’t believe such a third world slum existed within history’s richest country, oh, but it did. It does. A section of one of the world’s most glamorous cities set aside to hide thousands of homeless people, to hide America’s unwillingness to deal with poverty, mental health, drug addiction, and homelessness. It’s all swept under the rug, or under the shadow of downtown’s skyscrapers from the top of the world, down to a grimy, violent underworld, where you had to fight just to eat, and humanity

by Milton Alcantara The change I am fighting so hard to change for the better is quite frankly my entire way of being. At the moment I am writing this while sitting in a cell no bigger than my bathroom back home. I am an inmate in San Quentin State Prison. And I am here because of the way that I have conducted myself, as well as the way I learned to perceive the world around me over a hard and troubled life.  A life that taught me nothing but aggression, violence and disappointment. It hard wired an impulsive and

by Si Dang My name is Si V. Dang, an inmate who is currently housed at San Quentin State Prison. I am a former gang member, who took the wrong course of action in joining a gang and decided to live a life a of crime. My poor decisions consequently led me to commit a senseless murder and attempted murder on two innocent human beings. As a result of my actions and poor choices I am currently serving a life sentence in prison, as I am under the authority of California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation.  I write you this

by Jerome Carpenter I’m writing this on behalf of all the people that got killed. Their spirits are asking me to speak for them. Just like them, I want to ask all of the young people not to be like me, and the one reason is look at where I am right now. Some of us are dead and some of us are in prison. If you are the kind of person that doesn’t like losing to anybody, I say then listen to your dead homies if you don’t want to hear it from the living people/homies. Many of you

by Binh Nguyen My name is Nguyen Phuoc Binh, I am a refugee from Saigon, Vietnam. In 1980, at the age of seven, my father, older sister, and 26 other people escaped by boat from a communist regime for fear of being sent to a “Re-education Camp.” On the second day of our journey, we ran out of food and water. Our boat had a leaked, the motor died, and we floated aimlessly in the vast ocean. We took turns scooping water out of the boat to keep us from sinking.  By this time we had been without food and

by Reggie DeHaro Greetings ladies and gentlemen,  My name is Reggie DeHaro and I’d like to share the story of my life with you in hopes that it’ll make a difference in your life and help you make better decisions. Because although “Life” is all about choices, it’s the decisions you make now that will determine your destiny.  It’s a sad truth that the youth struggle with peer pressure. Peer pressure to join a gang, to commit crime, to use drugs and or alcohol, to bully someone or not say something when they see someone being bullied.  That’s the reason

by Hieu “Rocky” Nguyen My name is Hieu Nguyen. I am writing to you this letter in regard to my sinful involvement in the death of your beloved son. I must tell you that I am filled with worry at this moment. I am afraid that this letter will only serve to remind you of the loss of your son, and so it could bring you more pain. But yet, I believe that the greater wrong would be to fail to confess the harm I have done to you all, and to express my own grief and sorrow at the

by Dorian Voltaire Excuse me, dear, wish to catch your attention if I mayIf you would allow me but a moment,I have a couple things I simply must sayPlease forgive my grade but I must take a few minutes of your timeBecause to not steal your heart would be a truly unforgivable crimeI just can’t resist it, something about you draws me inA battle against your beauty is a fight no man can ever winBut it’s more than just your beauty, it’s a loveliness deep insideFeminine perfection is something you just can’t hidePlease forgive all the praise and flatteryWhen describing

by Johnny Rodriguez Greetings, Happy New Year! May 2020 be filled with continued vision to facilitate and solutionize short and long term goals.  Once we’re on the road of self-motivating inner healing, change, and recovery management can we individually live a meaningful life with self-respect, dignity, and steadfastness in light of our past.  Continuing to improve ourselves permits us to venture into new arenas cautiously to protect ourselves, especially, the work of reducing the risk of recidivism to earnestly be proactive, social and purposeful. Having a visionary perspective in effect, I’ve learned to not limit my inner perspective to continue

by  Marquees Johnson I remember sitting in San Francisco’s juvenile hall attending the Omega meetings listening to Jack throw knowledge into our minds I remember him telling us that only one or two of us would actually understand and take heed to the message and the others would learn and understand the message the hard way. At that time, I just knew that I was one of the two that was going to get the message that night.  Unfortunately, 14 15 years later I now understand that I had to learn the hard way. I’m now 28 old sitting inside