Beyond These Walls

By Doiakah Gray

Prison has its own culture.  Its façade centers around image.  Even if the image projected by the individual does not truly represent the person who is portraying it.  One of the reasons is prison makes you believe that you have to become someone else to survive.  Because being yourself shows your weaknesses and flaws.  This attitude causes many prisoners to fall into the culture found in prison.

Over the last decade, the penal system has experienced a transformation in one of its most essential components, rehabilitation.  Without a goal or mission, those who are incarcerated are falling deeper into the abyss of nothingness found beyond the walls of jails across this country.

Little concern has been taken from legislators or top prison officials to find a more effective use of prisons and how those who occupy correctional centers can use their time more efficiently to build character, a positive attitude, a trade and the skills needed to deal with overcoming obstacles.  The matter of rehabilitation falls squarely in the hands of those who are imprisoned.  We must develop the foresight to see beyond these walls, which we are incarcerated behind.  Our preparation today, lays the foundation for our future tomorrow.

It becomes easy to get consumed by the everyday affairs of surviving prison life. We lose focus of the important goals we set for ourselves.  One of the most important is taking care of ourselves and preparing for release.  Because once we have been released, we must start to rebuild our lives with the limited resources that have been provided to us.

In order for the ex-offender to face the struggles that lie ahead when he reaches the streets, he must reevaluate himself, his principles, his social conduct, past mistakes and, most importantly, the underlying behavior that led him to prison.  Usually what leads a person to prison is not only the questionable situations one was involved in.  When a person finds himself behind bars it is typically based on a life style of criminality and not just the one decision in one day.  So, to see beyond one’s current circumstances, and start to build a road map for honest living after prison, he must be fully exposed and open to change that redefines the core of his character.

For those who have been incarcerated or are currently facing incarceration, our futures are in our own hands.  The choices of our past do not have to be the choices of our future.  The decision of what we will become is ours.  We must use every resource we have to ensure success beyond these walls.

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