I Learned How to Accept Responsibility In Prison, And It Helped Me Reinvent My Life

To say the first few weeks of prison are shocking is an understatement.

I was in a new world, desperately attempting to make sense of it.

My life, as I knew it, was gone.

My freedom which I realized I took for granted, gone.

My identity, gone. I was asking myself, over and over,

“How did I get here?”

I was in denial, as were the majority of my fellow inmates.

We spend our time placing blame on anything but ourselves for why we are here. There was no shortage of people willing to listen. I played my violin,

“The prosecutor lied in court.”

“The agent who arrested me ignored evidence.”

“I really didn’t know what I was doing was wrong.”

“The probation officer told me I should only receive probation for what I did.”

I played the victim to a supportive audience all too willing to share their thoughts.

Almost everyone recites the same canned responses,

“The government will force a guilty plea regardless of the defendant’s actual guilt.”