-Smalls, San Diego Being grown up, in my honest opinion, I think requires being responsible and respectful. I think that I’m somewhat grown up, I just goof around too much and growing up my parents taught me to be respectful. Today was pretty alright. I woke up late. I lowkey had a weird dream about aliens and two hundred animals, which was plenty. Well, then I called my lil girlfriend and she had to go ‘cause she had school. Then after I hung up on her I worked out with the homie. I remember as a kid how I would
Continue ReadingFull of Good Moments
-CG, Sacramento On the outs I have a fun and simple life. Most days, I’m with my family spending it playing video games, watching TV, or playing sports at the park. After school, I go over to my friend’s house and we go out to Fire Wings and have some fun. My friends and I go out and do some stuff I can’t say. I’m up till midnight out with my friends and having fun. In the day, I go to my brother’s house and play some Assassins Creed. After that I’m back at home and then I go out
Continue ReadingContributions
-Dortell Williams, Correctional Facility, Lancaster, CA They say you only get out what you put in. I hear of guys “marrying up,” meaning that they marry someone better than themselves. But the strategy fails and they get divorced. Kinda explains why the divorce rate is so high. Then there are the guys and girls who hang out with people smarter and sharper than they are. Why? Because they are sharper and smarter than they are. Eventually, that plays out, too. Who wants to hang out with dummies all the time? So what works best in a relationship? I’ll tell you:
Continue ReadingBeing Grown Up Takes Work
-Wendy Fong, CCWF in Chowchilla, CA Being a grown up is hard. It doesn’t mean turning eighteen. You know you are a grown up when you can take responsibility for your actions and choices. It is caring about more than just yourself. Being a grown up means making choices to do the right thing when you know you could get away with not caring. Being a grown up is making sure you are being a good role model and speaking the truth. I believe I am a grown up. I think my transition to becoming a grown up happened when
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Volume 29.11/12
Please contact Lisa Lavaysse if you would like to purchase the full PDF or a printed copy of this issue.
Continue ReadingEd Note 29.11/12
Welcome back, The Beat Within is proud to publish another stellar issue of writing and artwork from our incarcerated community around the country! As we awaken into Spring, we hope you are able to look forward with hope and inspiration. This issue’s editorial note is brought to you by two of our recent interns from Urban High School of San Francisco, Delilah and Oscar! In her reflection essay, we learn that Delilah found community among our incarcerated writers who bravely process their grief in our pages. With Oscar, the power of writing one’s truth becomes a source of inspiration and
Continue ReadingFocus on Today
-Priscilla, Santa Clara If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple: know what you are doing; love what you are doing; believe in what you are doing. For years I’ve defined success as knowing your purpose, growing to your potential, sowing seeds that benefit others, by making the right value choices and living them every day! Success isn’t something you achieve. Successful is something you are. For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train,
Continue ReadingDreams of my Grandma
-GH, Stanislaus People say dreams are “a way for our brains to process information gathered during the day.” I beg to differ — I don’t always agree with this statement. It’s actually ironic that I was just talking to my mom at visiting (because I’m currently in juvenile hall) and somehow the topic of “dreams” came up. I told her I had a dream of my grandma, which is my mom’s mom. It was odd for me because my grandma passed away three years ago in July. Ever since she passed, I would ask God why he wouldn’t give me
Continue ReadingWhat Was the Purpose?
-Frederick Mason, Correctional Facility, AZ Program Statement 540.100, under Purpose and Scope for Inmate Telephone Regulation states, in part: “Telephone privileges are a supplemental means of maintaining community and family ties that will contribute to an inmate’s personal development,” and “Maintaining pro-social/legal contact with family and community ties is a valuable tool in the overall correctional process.” I take this to mean that in some regards, the use of telephone calls is vital to the wellbeing of every inmate here, because it gives us a connection to the outside world. Whether we are calling our parents, our spouses, our church
Continue ReadingGlobal Ideology Behind Prisoner Conscription
-Scott D Culp, Correctional Facility in Chino, CA The labor-intensive aspect of the current war between Ukraine and Russia has the latter scrambling for able-bodied men. Taxing from the lowest hanging fruits of a dictatorship, Russian prisoners were openly pressed for conscription into the paramilitary “Wagner Group.” I can certainly empathize with a convict seeking absolution from sins, especially clothed in the austerity of the State. Ours is a cryptic world where the foreshadow of a war involving our fraternal dis-order of brothers has us questioning our worth in society. Because of the economic costs of a regular army, the
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