AUTHORS NOTE: This post corrects an accidental post of misinformation in “Burning Bridges”: https://straightfromthepen.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/burning-bridges I apologize for the inaccuracy reported in Burning Bridges, April 2017. Wayne T. Dowdy. The misinformation was that, “Sherman spared the mansion because of the hospitality shown to him and his soldiers by Mr. Peters.“ Please visit the original post of this…
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The Real Straight From the Pen
Get it uncut, uncensored and in true form: This comes straight from the pen. Many words escaped the thick walls, bars and fences lined with rows of sharp and shiny razor wire, designed to slice and dig deep into the flesh of anyone who dares to cross the guard line to venture into the real…
More From Quora.com
Please read the other posts on QUORA.com and click to upvote if you support the writings you read, including those of other writers in the QUORA community. Thanks! I posted the following on Saturday, December 29, 2018, and received the most upvotes (22 to date) and 1.8k views. Read the original post at Quora https://www.quora.com/How-does-serving-time-in-federal-prison-compare-to-state-prison…
WAITING
I am waiting, waiting for my WorkKeys test scores, waiting for a class to begin on Job Applications & Resumé Writing. All of that waiting concerns preparation for the day my freedom arrives (read my poem below, “Waiting”). The past prepares me for today. Today prepares me for tomorrow; and if given a “tomorrow,” I…
RECIDIVISM IN AMERICA by Wayne T. Dowdy
(“Like” this blog and sign on at straightfromthepen.wordpress.com to receive future postings. Reprint rights granted.) January 11, 2017: Three men sat at a corner table in the prison “Chow Hall”; each with a hamburger, a few strands of lettuce leafs, a thin slice of tomato, and “Smiley Faces” (fried, round pieces of oil-saturated, potatoes, with…
REENTERING REALITY
by Wayne T. Dowdy The clock ticks away the seconds, minutes, hours, and months until my release. The realities I must face flood the senses as my day comes closer. The last three decades of my life will have been spent inside federal prisons. For most of this sentence, getting out seemed so far into…
Changing Public Image of Prisoners
by Wayne T. Dowdy Every major news network feeds the public negative reports about those who commit crimes. Understandably, the negative press induces abhorrence, antipathy and fear towards those who commit crimes and go to prison. Some of those who receive the negative press are ex-offenders who returned to old behaviors upon release (recidivist), and…
REENTRY PROGRAMS WILL REDUCE RECIDIVISM
by Wayne T. Dowdy Thousands of American prisoners are released each year. Statistically, almost half of them will return to prison within eight years of release, costing American taxpayers billions of dollars each year. The 2014 average cost of incarceration for federal offenders was over $30,000. On July 10, 2016, the Federal Bureau of Prisons…