Hi everyone, it’s Eli the intern here. I recently had the opportunity to hear Michael Santos speak at one of my classes at UC Berkeley, and I’m excited to be part of the incredible Prison Professors team. This article serves to supplement Prison Professors’ most recent video, Document the Journey Before, During, and After Release from Prison, providing further insight into how to design a better future while in prison.
The most consequential action Michael did in prison was document, document, document. Writing at every step of his journey allowed him to move from maximum to medium to low and eventually to minimum security prisons. Even after his release, Michael’s documentation of his time in prison served as a foundation for his entrepreneurial endeavors and the success he found in them. Even if you haven’t documented a single day of your prison experience yet, start now, as its effectiveness is not limited to just Michael, and it will help you clarify and achieve your goals.
Michael was extremely young when he was incarcerated. At only 23, he entered the prison system as a result of what he calls regretful decisions. I have always found it very interesting that Michael does not lament in the past; he doesn’t look at circumstances to exonerate him from his actions, and instead, embraces them as his own. It seems that this is a part of his narrative, as his agency may have been what led him into prison, but it is also what allowed him to get out.
In his jail cell, Michael realized that he wanted a brighter future, and a brighter future meant making decisions different from those that led to his current state of darkness. A brighter future meant getting out of bad environments and into better ones, ultimately freedom from prison. What is unique about Michael’s journey is that he knew exactly what he could do to aid himself in this release and also what he couldn’t. Documenting his story gave Michael the opportunity to always be thinking of the stakeholders who did have the power to move him into better environments, how he could appease them, and how he could get them to advocate for him in the future.
Michael’s step-by-step journey is available to read here.
If you aren’t documenting your journey, you aren’t creating mitigation strategies that can help you along your journey. To me, Michael’s emphasis on documentation connects to the broader necessity of clear communication; if you are in a relatively powerless position (such as being in prison) you are relying on others, on your team, to assist you in achieving your desired goals. However, no one will be able to help if you cannot communicate these goals. Narratives are everything. Not only will keeping track of your growth gives you a better sense of how far you came and how much more you have to accomplish, but people are also more likely to help you if they see narratives of growth in your words on paper instead of haring you provide them with hypothetical scenarios that don’t have a past to support them.
Change is the only inevitable thing in life, so be the curator of your own change by communicating to yourself and others. Documentation of the past allows you and your team to see what is going to make the biggest differences for the future, and what steps are needed to get there.
For Michael, his plan involved writing with a partner for a peer-reviewed journal, getting published, and sharing it with administrators so that they could be agents of his plan. You don’t need to follow his specific plan to find the same success as him, as Michael’s outline has two basic components. First, clearly and effectively advocate for yourself to others, showing your growth and goals through documentation. Secondly, incorporate those who you advocated yourself to in your mitigation strategy, allowing them now to be your advocates and to influence scenarios in ways that you cannot.
One of the most incredible aspects about Michael, in my opinion, is that he practices what he preaches. It is completely fair to look at his experience in one specific prison and say that his strategy worked because he was lucky, but it worked at every prison at every point of his journey. And all of this, every ounce of success that he found, started with documentation. Through the clear communication of his past, present, and hopes for the future, Michael was able to turn hypotheticals into reality; he was able to prove to others that he could progress because he had progressed. He has continuously documented his hard work, which has furthered his career and positive impact on the criminal justice system.
Ultimately, the entire team at Prison Professors believes in you, so believe in yourself. Believe in your ability to create a plan to take change into your own hands so that you can build your future.
