Digital Economy is a masterclass we’re creating as a follow up to our course: Preparing for Success after Prison. The master class will help participants develop an understanding of the rapidly evolving digital economy. Through a series of ongoing lessons, students will become more fluent with subjects that include:

• Cryptocurrency
• DeFi (Decentralized Finance)
• Smart Contracts
• Blockchain
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Social Media
• Influencer Marketing
• And more

Our introductory course, Preparing for Success after Prison, urges participants to prepare for the challenges they will face upon release. With this masterclass we encourage people to continue advancing their preparations. By working through the self-directed lessons, participants develop more skills and position themselves to open more opportunities. 

The Prison Professors Charitable Corporation offers this course as part of its advocacy efforts. We’re on a mission to improve outcomes for people in jails and prisons, understanding that institutions may not allow people to access the internet, classrooms, teachers, or even books. The Prison Professors nonprofit exists to fill this void. 

Regardless of institutional resources we aspire to help people prepare to thrive through prison and upon release. For that reason, we offer the lessons in a digital format, but also as a self-directed paperback workbook.

Lessons on living as the CEO of our life require participants to prepare for success. That means they must be willing to:

• Do Hard Things: Regardless of resources a prison system provides, people must invest in themselves.
• Define Success: Each person is different, and each person must pursue success on his or her terms.
• Persevere: Anticipate challenges, obstruction, and difficulties, but continue pursuing success.
• Memorialize Your Journey: Build a resume that will show your commitment to learning and adding value.

That’s the process to prepare for success. Success, however, isn’t about the process. It’s not about getting certificates or time credits. Success is about results. Each participant has to get the results. To get the results, a participant must believe that success is possible.

To succeed upon release, we’ve got to stay current with our learning, so we can understand changes in the world. Regardless of what obstacles we face, we’re all responsible for sowing seeds that will lead to our highest potential. And we have to live in the world as it exists, understanding that circumstances aren’t always as we would like.

As high recidivism rates show, too many people allow external circumstances to keep them in a cycle of failure and struggle. They live with the misguided perception that the best way to serve time is to forget about the world outside. Rather than preparing for success upon release, they give up, allowing the negativity to consume them as they focus on a prison reputation. Those people frequently face new challenges upon release. They struggle with unemployment, underemployment, homelessness, or further problems with the law. 

To succeed upon release from confinement, a person must prepare. 

Although our introductory course, Preparing for Success after Release, isn’t a prerequisite for this self-directed master course, we recommend participants work through the lessons. The introductory course offers suggestions on how to think different from others in a prison setting, and how to think differently from a pre-incarceration mindset. 

The introductory course will validate the commitment Prison Professors makes through all our courses:

• We never ask anyone to do anything that we’re not doing.

In this course, I’ll serve as an ambassador for lessons that I’m learning from Ryan Salame (pronounced Say-lum), who has been volunteering with our nonprofit. Besides teaching me about his experience with cryptocurrencies, Ryan has directed me to other areas where I can research information. I’ll do my best to aggregate this information on decentralized finance and disruptive technologies. 

We want justice-impacted people to learn how they can use this knowledge to create income streams upon release. It aligns with our nonprofit’s mission, which is: #NoExcuses.

Regardless of what challenges a person faces, or what crisis exists in a person’s life, every person has a responsibility to learn and to create opportunities. That no-excuses mindset got me through 26 years in prison, and it empowered me upon release. 

For those who don’t know who I am, or the nature of our mission, I’ll provide that backstory in the next lesson. 

We’ll keep these lessons relatively brief so that we can distribute them without charge through digital platforms and as a free download from our website at www.PrisonProfessors.com. 

Our nonprofit advocates for changes within the criminal justice system. We’re striving to persuade stakeholders to:

• Authorize more incentives that will allow people to work toward higher levels of liberty through merit.
• Introduce work-release programs for people who develop solid release plans and show their commitment to living as law-abiding, contributing citizens.
• Open channels for people in prison to memorialize their journeys, so they can more easily advocate for themselves as they strive to recalibrate and succeed upon release.

Critical Thinking Questions for You:

1. In what ways have you prepared yourself to understand the digital economy?
2. How do you see technology changing jobs in the future?
3. What digital skills do you think will be most valuable upon your release?

Remember, critical-thinking questions do not have right or wrong answers. Your responses should show your pathway to learning, and the ways that you’re using time inside to prepare for success upon release. Use this opportunity to show your commitment to building an effective release plan, as we recommend in our preliminary course, Preparing for Success after Prison.

We invite people in prison to participate in these self-directed learning courses. To become a part of our advocacy, each person should open a personal profile on a website that our nonprofit sponsors at www.PrisonProfessorsTalent.com. 

Profiles become public, allowing anyone with access to the internet to view an “extraordinary and compelling” adjustment through prison. Learn how to differentiate yourself by becoming more valuable to society, and you will open opportunities to thrive.

Memorialize your preparations for success by sending your responses to the critical-thinking questions that accompany each lesson. We offer instructions for participants who want to build a record, showing why they’re extraordinary and compelling at the bottom of each lesson. 

Depending upon your access, share your story and responses using the manner that works best for you:

1. Send through email to [email protected]
   1. Subject line: Digital Economy Course

2. Send through regular mail:

Prison Professors

℅ Digital Economy Course

32565 Golden Lantern, Suite B-1026

Dana Point, CA 92629

3. Send through the Edovo tablet

Prison Professors

℅ Digital Economy Course

32565 Golden Lantern, Suite B-1026

Dana Point, CA 92629

Evolving Lesson Sequences:

• Lesson 1: Digital Economy: Prologue to Course
• Lesson 2: Digital Economy: Instructors, Tokens, and Bitcoin
• Lesson 3: Digital Economy: Satoshi Nakamoto