Last March I visited an inmate in the county jail. He was a good looking guy. Only 30 years old. But drugs had already caused him to stash 22 months of his life behind bars.

Now...he was up for his 3rd time and thought he might get 20 years. That meant he would have to be in for at least 5 years before he could even "think" about parole.

I challenged him to accept the verdict and MAKE THE MOST out of those five years.

People go to college for 4 years and come out "better off". Why can’t people go to prison ad do the same? It’s Not Impossible!

I let him know that a man who doesn’t change his thinking in prison will never be able to change his behavior when he gets out.

My job was to feed him good ‘seed thoughts’ to work with. His job is to think about those good things and let them grow and expand within himself.

After letting him know I would be willing to try to help him...I never saw him again. His aunt wrote to me and gave me his new address. He had gotten 30 years instead of twenty.

What you are about to read is the actual letter I wrote to him. The only thing I’ve changed is his name.

I haven’t heard from him yet. But, I promised to give other prisoners the chance to change their thinking and their lives.

And that’s what this issue of the PRISON JOURNAL is all about. You are welcome to read his letter and get in on the ‘good life’ if you want to.

A NEW STAR

IN A

REPEAT PERFORMANCE

Dear Dale,

This place is going to be ‘home’ for at least seven years. My job is to get you to ‘accept that fact’ and get settled in.

When I saw you in March we thought you wouldn’t be eligible for parole for at least 5 years...but somebody ‘upped the ante’ on you. Oh well, that just gives us a little more time. Now, we can call it our "7 Year Success Plan".

Dale, if you suddenly had a ‘bag of gold’ or a ‘suitcase full of cash’...you would probably dump it out on your bed and THINK OF ALL THE WAYS YOU COULD SPEND IT.

Well...your brain and emotions and spirit are more valuable than a ‘bag of gold’. You have seven years laid out before you. It’s your life and your time. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SPEND IT?

The decisions you make now are important. Mess up now and the parole board may give you some ‘extra spending money’... like 3 more years in this place!

Spend your time on some ‘serious mistakes’ and you could collect the ‘full thirty’. Is that what you want? Soooo, WHAT DO YOU WANT?

I know. I know. Everybody wants OUT! And they all want out NOW! Nobody wants even one year in this place.

But, you have NO CHOICE concerning the first seven years. So, I’m asking..."Do you want 7 or 30?"

Sure...I know. no donkey in the stall is going to willingly say, ‘KEEP ME IN THE BARN FOR 30 YEARS!"

So you are going to say, "I want out in seven." And I say, "How does it feel to want?"

Some people want to be President. Some want to live in a warehouse of cocaine. Some want to live in a mansion. But, some people live all their life in a basement of want and NEVER GET TO THE FIRST FLOOR OF "HAVE"!

Prison is full of fantasy freaks. These guys pick up girls on the beach. They have a different one every night. They have six at a time. Oh yes, they do all these things...

BUT ONLY IN THEIR MINDS! ONLY IN THEIR MINDS!

THE SHOE SHINE BOY!

A little kid is ‘pushin’ the brush & snappin’ the rag’ as he shines the shoes of the rich. He sees how those guys are dressed. He watches them pull out FAT WALLETS and drive away in nice cars.

HE WANTS TO BE LIKE THEM!

But, a hundred other shoe shine boys do too. They all want some of that kind of action. They all dream of being rich.

But only one...ONE OUT OF A THOUSAND...went on to be really rich.

But that kid was a ‘go getter’. He pushed the brush faster and snapped the rag harder. And he learned to ‘smile’ at those rich dudes...and got lots of tips.

Other kids got tips too. But, none of them ever got rich on tips.

Nope. This kid didn’t want ‘just tips’. He wanted to be rich and HE WAS A THINKER!

When he brushed shoes...he asked questions. He asked those guys how they got to be rich. He asked them HOW HE COULD BE LIKE THEM. And he was a LISTENER.

He listened to their answers. He went home and listened to them again and again. He didn’t own a tape recorder...except the one in his mind. And he used it to remember what they said. He remembered for years and years until he had a chance to do what they suggested.

HE WASN’T JUST A THINKER AND A LISTENER!

HE WAS A "DOER" ALSO!

This kid didn’t just listen to GOOD ADVICE. He did it. They told him to get a good education. So he quit skipping school. He started doing his homework without ‘momma’ hollering at him to do it.

If the teacher told him to read a chapter...he would read ten. He would read the chapters again and again. He made the teacher ‘like him’, so she started giving him extra help and extra books to read at night.

When they told him to "LEARN TO SAVE MONEY", he saved money. But, he didn’t save just one penny from every dime. Oh no! He saved the whole dime.

He didn’t just save that money for a week or a month. He saved and saved until all his dimes help put him through college.

They told him to ‘invest’ his money. Well, he did. He invested it in a college first. While at college he learned that TIME IS MONEY. So he invested his time in things that would ‘pay off’ someday.

The ‘shine boys’ had wanted him to invest in ice cream...but he didn’t.

The ‘college boys’ wanted him to invest his money in bars and pool rooms...but he didn’t.

When he started in business, some of his friends wanted him to invest in ‘girlie shows’ and gambling. But, he didn’t.

You see, he was rich when he started this life and he wanted to stay that way. DO YOU REMEMBER ME TELLING YOU THAT HE WAS RICH WHEN HE WAS BORN? Oh! I forgot to tell you that.

His parents lived in a one room shack by the river. His dad was a drunk. He went to bed hungry lots and lots of nights.

BUT THE KID WAS RICH! HE HAD SEVENTY YEARS OF TIME

TO DO IN THE EARTH!

Sure his time started out bad. Life wasn’t fair. He had to experience cold, hunger, fear, hate and the feeling of being unloved. But he had 70 years to get his life turned around.

His friends were all the ‘poor’ kids of the neighborhood. He couldn’t get his dimes or love from them. He learned to collect from those who had more than him...without stealing it.

Those rich people were doing their time in the earth too...but, they didn’t go to bed hungry while they were doing time.

He could see that there were different ways to "DO TIME" while he was in a human body...and he wanted to choose the ‘better way’.

He didn’t get very far during the first 7 years of his life. But, from seven to fourteen, he thought and planned and worked. When he was 14 he got a paper route and made it the best and biggest route in town. He went on doing the best he could everywhere he went.

He was working and hurting while his friends were playing.

They said he was ‘just lucky’. Yep! His dad went to prison when he was nine. His mom died when he was 13. He had lots of luck...bad luck!

But, he learned to take the bad breaks in life and used them as NEW REASONS TO SUCCEED!

YOU ARE RICH...RIGHT NOW!

Am I crazy? I don’t think so. Subtract your present age from 70...and what do you have left?

See! There are still a lot of GOOD YEARS left in you. Now...dump them all on the floor in front of you...and ask yourself, "HOW DO I WANT TO SPEND THESE YEARS?"

Today is yours! It is part of all that time spread out before you on the floor. I’m going to watch as you PICK UP TODAY. I’m going to watch how you spend TODAY! It is how you spend today that is going to make the difference how you spend tomorrow. Life is simply made up of lots and lots of TODAYS! They all count. They are all valuable. They are too valuable to waste.

BUT...YESTERDAY WAS BAD!

Who cares? You may have 20 years of wasted yesterdays. But, you can’t go back and spend them again. They are gone. Did you hear me? I said, THEY ARE GONE! You can’t invest money that you have already blown. You can only invest what you have left.

THE RICH MAN’S SECRET!

Someone asked a rich man, "What is the secret of your success?"

The man replied, "GOOD DECISIONS!" So they asked him how he was able to make those "GOOD DECISIONS".

He said, "From experience". So they asked him, "Where did you get your experience?"

And he simply answered, "From BAD DECISIONS!"

So you see, EVERYBODY MAKES MISTAKES...EVEN RICH PEOPLE AND PRESIDENTS. But, the successful people learn from their mistakes and they quit making the same ones over and over and over again.

YOUR LIFE IS YOURS...MY LIFE IS MINE!

You can do what you want with your todays and your tomorrows and your future. You can spend the next 30 or 40 or 50 years behind bars if you want to. You can spend your time in hatred and anger and regrets and fights and depression. That’s none of my business. Do what you want!

But., my life is mine. I can spend it how I want! And I want to spend today on you. I want to invest in other people’s futures. I want to make a difference for someone who wants and needs help.

I’m going to do that whether you like it or not. You may not want my help...but that’s not going to keep me from following my plan for success.

I’ll find a ‘loser’ in a different cell or in another prison. I’ll make my sales pitch to him. I will help make him a winner.

I have a product to sell, ‘HOPE FOR THE FUTURE" and I will find some sucker who will buy into my plan. I’ll talk him into spending his ‘money’ my way. He will be spending his ‘prison days’ and his ‘prison nights’ on a plan that will help him on the outside...when he really needs that help.

You may eat across the table from him. He may spend just as many years in prison as you. You may think that you are BOTH WASTING SEVEN GOOD YEARS OF YOUR LIFE. But, he won’t be wasting those seven years. I guarantee it!

I don’t know who the dude is, but he has a number and I’m going to find it. I am going to tap on the door of his head until he begins to see the light of what I’m trying to say.

You may have 30 excuses why you can’t use the next seven years wisely. This other dude may have 45 counts against him. But, I’m going to give him ONE GOOD REASON to live and invest in hope and possibility. He’s going to grab my one good reason and flush his 45 excuses down the commode where they belong.

You may be ‘good looking’ and he may be ‘ugly’, but he’s going to be carrying his ‘ugly’ around in the free world after you come back in to let your good looks rot in another cell for another 7 years.

He may have a ‘life sentence’ and they may not give him ‘parole’. But, he’s the kind of guy that’s not going to waste his life just because it ALL HAS TO BE BEHIND BARS! You can get out and try to be "Mr. Playboy" in a free world play pen. But, all the time you are laughing and drinking, you will be carrying around an inside misery everywhere you go.

Seven years from now...prison doors all over the country will be opening....letting someone go free.

One man will walk out...ABSOLUTELY FREE! He will be free to carve a new life out of the mountain of civilization. He will be able to find a place to live and work and to MAKE A NEW HOME FOR HIMSELF AND FOR OTHERS!

But, out of all those other thousands who are let out that same year...most of them are just leaving on a short trip.

They will be coming back ‘HOME’ and there will be someone to meet them on the other side of ‘THE CLANGING STEEL DOORS". They will say, "Welcome back Dude...make yourself at home!"

If that is you...then let me be the first one to say, "WELCOME HOME". Maybe this is where you want to spend the rest of your life. If that’s true...then that’s o.k. by me. SOMEBODY HAS TO LIVE IN THESE CELLS! Does it make any difference WHO? Does it make any difference to you? Does it really?

If you are going to say, "THIS AIN’T MY HOME FOREVER!" then, why not put your money where your mouth is. Your money is your time. Let’s see what you do with your time.

Let the guy next to you do HIS TIME anyway that he wants to. But your time is yours. Why are you going to let a ‘loser’ talk you into spending YOUR TIME...HIS WAY? If he wants to BE LIKE HE IS FOREVER, then let him. And if you want to BE LIKE HIM FOREVER...then go ahead and BE LIKE HIM NOW!

But, every time you act like the guy next to you...I want you to THINK! And then I want you to THINK AGAIN!

SEVEN YEARS OF THINKING!

Whether you want to or not...you are going to THINK FOR SEVEN YEARS. You have to think. You can’t stop thinking. Even when you go to sleep your brain keeps on thinking. That’s why you dream. Your mind is thinking ‘with pictures’.

Everybody in prison thinks. They think the whole time they are locked up. But, their thinking doesn’t make life any better for themselves.

If you want things to be different for you, you will have to THINK AND THEN THINK AGAIN.

The first way of thinking is normal. Anybody can think like that. A person becomes what he thinks. So, before a man can change his life...he has to CHANGE HIS THINKING! There is no other way.

When people’s lives don’t get better, it means they are coming up with the wrong answers in their THINK MACHINE.

SOMETIMES IT HELPS TO HAVE SOME OUTSIDE "THOUGHTS" to help us channel our thinking in the right direction.

The reason God is not in hell or in prison is because He refuses to FORCE HIS GOOD THOUGHTS ON THOSE WHO DON’T WANT TO LISTEN TO HIM.

I’m following God...and learning to be like Him. I’m not going to try to change a man’s way of thinking unless he wants me to.

I can be a salesman and try to get my ‘foot in the door’. But, if someone gets upset and doesn’t want to hear anymore...then, I’m on my way. I’ll leave without making a sale.

I've tried to get to you...but, if my words haven’t made you want to ‘HEAR MORE"...then, I’m finished. I’ll go on to the next cell and see if I can find an interested customer there.

I’m selling THOUGHTS! GOOD THOUGHTS! I don’t mind admitting that. These thoughts are designed to influence your thinking...so that you can begin coming up with GOOD THOUGHTS OF YOUR OWN! (FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE).

Some ‘safe crackers’ can tickle the tumblers on a safe in just the right way to get it to open up and let them get all the loot inside.

But, I’m not turning the dial on a safe. I'm trying to turn a man’s thinking...just enough to get him to open up to a good future.

I’m trying to get to the ‘valuable stuff’ on the inside of you. Your full potential!

If I can start bringing out the good in you, we can begin investing that good in others...AND SOMEDAY WE WILL BOTH BE RICH!

WELCOME HOME...FOR THE LAST TIME

Look at your body. Look at it! You can’t live and hide in there forever. No way!

You have to die sometime. When you do...your spirit will leave your body and go HOME, where it belongs.

For some people...dying is just a transfer to an eternal prison...worse than the one you are in now. That’s where the ugly, the mean, the unloving and the violent people of every generation will be. When they see you, they will say, ‘WELCOME HOME...FOR GOOD"! In that place, there’s no such thing as ‘getting out’. There are no parole boards and no hope for a new life of any kind.

Those people there will be the ONLY FAMILY YOU WILL EVER HAVE, FOREVER! I wonder if you might like your new family!

Other people will die and get transferred to heaven. They take no gold, no silver, no cars, no houses, no cocaine, no booze and no pin-up pictures or human flesh with them. But, they will have found "THE GOOD LIFE"! The people who wasted their lives on those earthly things are suddenly poor. But me...I’m investing my time in things that count...in people. I’m recruiting people for a transfer to THE ONLY FREE WORLD!

When my money and typewriter are gone...I’ll have a hundred people waiting for me at the gate. They will say, "Welcome Home and THANKS FOR SHOWING US THE WAY HOME!"

I’ll be rich then. I wish I could be there when you arrive...and be able to say, "WELCOME HOME FOREVER!" WHAT DO YOU THINK?

DO YOU WANT THAT FOR YOURSELF?

Well, Dale...this is it. It’s time to get on with the rest of my life.

Are you with me or not? I know you are not much of a writer...because I sent stuff to you in the county jail...and never heard from you.

This is my last try. If you don’t think you need my advice and my words...then DO NOTHING...and you will not hear from me anymore.

If you can scribble at least one little note to me...I’ll keep sending stuff like this to you FOR THE NEXT SEVEN YEARS!

If I don’t hear from you...that’s o.k. Because God and I don’t waste our time. I’m prepared to ‘rewrite’ this letter to you and then send it to a thousand other inmates.

Some of them are going to write back and say, "keep sending me your thoughts...they are helping me." And I will do just that.

My way is God’s way. His way is toward a better future.