Letters From Prison

Hello its me! I'm doing time in texas...at 53 years old, I should be enjoying the remainder of my life...and the fact that I just beat colorectal cancer means I'll live longer...in prision...I've got 2-20 and 2-15's for possession of drugs with intent to deliever and my wifes pistol in the back of my truck unloaded in her backpack...oh well my discharge date is 2-14-2027...haven't seen her since lock up...so I need a job, cartoonist, writing, anything I can from behind bars (that's legal).I thought about writing my autobiography but I can't remember what happened, duh?

This morning I joined my youth group voluneteering with an outreach ministry. We read letters from prisioners requesting books. My job was to read the letters, highlight the titles/authors/genres and copy the label information. I wrote names, addresses and prison ID's until my hand hurt. My brothers helped wrap books in packing paper.

Most of the letters were short. I did get one that was seven pages long, requesting lots of books. I think he was a poet because some of the lines rhymed but most of what he said didn't make any sense. Many prisioners requested books on horror and murder genres...but most likely they will be dissappointed.

One requested a title on gays and queers. Another asked for a book with sex scenes but no romance. My most confusing request was for a book on reincarnation and a picture book on fruit. He said it could be any fruit, apples, oranges... I just felt that was really strange.

The excerpt from the top was the letter that caught my eye. It was the only letter I read that described the crime. At the top he sketched a picture, a shape with skull eyes, and colored it purple and pink. It was really good.

Knowing that he was in for drugs though...his whole story really touched me. I think it's the other side of drugs...the one we don't see. It's always so glamorized, from the users to the dealers. How often do we see this side? A 53 year old man in jail till 2027. That's a long time.

Crimes are so preventable. It's a price no one wants to pay.