What kept you going?
If not for the reading and visits from family and friends, such as my daughter Nicole and my lawyers, prison is totally a “sensory deprivation” — you have to do something or you’ll go nuts. Prison is a trip into boredom, with a side trip to monotony. It is tough if you make friends because some leave before you do, so you lost a friend and have to think about whether it is worth doing it again. After a while you realize that you must do the time or the “time” will do you. So you work to occupy your mind. I noticed that a lot of people in prison have no self-esteem, usually because they are going to be there for so long, they give up. I believe now that many people are in prison far longer than they should be and it does not help them to think about reordering their life, they are down so much. This is especially true of young drug dealers with terms of 10 or more years.
What motivated you? How did you fight the boredom?
I have always proclaimed my innocence — that keeps me going even today. In prison I focused on that and largely on my legal appeal for the better part of a year or more — working on that, hoping on that. But that fell through when my conviction was not reversed. Then my sentence was not reduced, even though the US Supreme Court had ruled while I was in prison that the federal sentencing guidelines under which I was sentenced were not mandatory but were recommendations. So then I determined to keep looking toward the day I would go home and what it would take to keep going, stay out of trouble, and finish my sentence.
During my stay there was a food strike in the prison promoted by Latino inmates and they asked me to join. I declined, went to the cafeteria that day, which was only half-full, and stayed away from the strike action. The administration then put us all in lockdown for three days, which meant we ate in our living quarters. We ate just baloney sandwiches and soda for those few days. I was determined not to get involved. I did not want to mess up my good behavior time, which can be up to 54 days a year off the full sentence. During that lockdown period the guards pulled a few of the strike ringleaders out during the night, shackled them, and took them off to other prisons, to break up the strike. We never saw those guys at Fort Dix again. I believe the key to happiness is freedom, and the key to freedom is courage — that is, to do what has to be done and keep doing it until it is accomplished. Having a routine each day helps a lot.
Related:
Buddymania!, More of the same, As the ProJo Turns, More 
- Buddymania!
Buddy Cianci was already making the media wait.
- More of the same
There's a story that famed author P.G. Wodehouse — aged, ill, and confined to his bed — woke up one morning, opened his eyes, and said, “Not again !”
- As the ProJo Turns
The Providence Journal rolled into 2006 in dramatic form.
- Down in the dumps
Your superior correspondents are shocked -- shocked! we tell you -- to see a front page story in the Other Paper indicating that there has been some sort of monkey business going on at the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, aka, the Central Landfill, aka "the Dump."
- Dollar Bill-ed
Phillipe + Jorge are surprised and sad to see that state Senator Stephen Alves of West Warwick is being investigated by the FBI.
- Look in the mirror
What’s a new year in Rhode Island without a few indictments?
- More trouble in the Supermax
A hunger strike has ended at the Maine State Prison in Warren, but all is not well at the state’s largest house of corrections.
- Robojudge
Judge Stephen Breyer, Bill Clinton's latest pick for the Supreme Court, has attracted support so broad that it spans ideological and political differences.
- Article aided big oil
Nothing helps big oil, and big coal, more than a piece like "What's Wrong With Wind Power?" (by Deirdre Fulton, August 21).
- Brass balls and cold steel
John “Red” Shea’s close-cut hair — the hair that gave him that standard-issue Irish nickname — isn’t quite as fiery as it was when he was a young fighter coming up hard from G Street in South Boston.
- Wrongful convictions
The state’s top prosecutors continue to insist that we don’t need an innocence commission, despite the two dozen or so wrongful convictions that have come to light. Roland Douglas Phinney Jr. might disagree.
- Less
Topics:
News Features
, Politics, Celebrity News, Mike Stanton, More
, Politics, Celebrity News, Mike Stanton, David McCullough, Joe Paolino, Robert De Niro, David Igliozzi, Rascal King, Talk Radio, Entertainment, Less
