#109 On Demand Prison Help (for hire)

On Demand Prison Help

Sounds kinda like something off Time Warner, although half the time their stuff never works. We have cable and if I had the money to switch to ANYTHING else, I would, but hey, when you are broke, you take what you have in front of you.

Anyway, I just finished watching a double overtime game of Kansas State and Xavier, excellent game! But I wanted to make a quick post as to why I have not blogged lately.

In a way it is a good thing, because when I get a lot of emails from readers who read my blogs and ask questions, I know I am on the right track. I have been getting numerous emails from readers, and I take great delight in trying my best to answer them. If a person asks a question that I feel can help many people, then I will blog my thoughts on it. That way, while helping one person, I might end up helping 50.

I really want to get back into talking about prison experiences, many of you noticed that lately I have been talking more about prison support sites and the like. While some might think this does not help folks, I believe it does. The idea of “prison support” by the very nature is supposed to be helping thousands of people. But to this point there really is no check or balance about it. The goals are not so clear that every member understands, and the sites often have far more people that would rather not help anybody else, but expect everybody else to help them.

It is part of the prison genre, and having had experience in numerous prison support sites, I do write about that. It kinda makes sense too, since it is part of my “now” time. But I want to try to get back into writing more about prison, and my experiences.

This is why all my writings while in prison are invaluable. Even though I got out in 2001, I have stacks of things I wrote while I was there. From grievances to letters, prayers, and all kinds of literature, I have all that right here with me in my closet…it was in the attic but I brought it down in anticipation of writing more.

This is what I want to sink my teeth into, because it will help you truly understand where I am coming from as an ex felon, and what life was like while I was in prison. So I am hoping to get back to that soon, and from the emails I have been getting, that could be sooner than later.

But another reason why I have not blogged as much lately was because of something I said kinda as a joke, but is seemingly turning a bit more realistic. A few blogs back I kinda joked about how one lady asked if she could “hire” me as a consultant, or a coach, to help her with a loved one in prison.

She wanted someone she could contact to explain to her what her loved one was going through, and terms of prison that she did not fully understand. She felt that if she knew just a little more, it might put her at some ease, and give her some peace of mind. She was willing to pay me with a little support each month, as she could afford, since I have no idea what that kinda service is worth.

The difference in what she asked was that she needed more direct contact via email than general. For example, if I got 5 emails today from readers, I can decide when to answer, and which order. But if one of those was from that lady, she gets my priority. I would do my best to answer her question or email FIRST, and if I blog anything out, I will let her know about it as well.

But this also extends to something else. Since I am getting some of my print works back on the computer (as I lost everything by system recovery awhile back), I can now create prison encouragement certificates, prison cards and other products to sell. Since she is supporting me, I will send her something every month, or every few weeks, as I can afford to do so.

All this was kinda spur of the moment as we originally talked about it, but she seemed serious in getting that help, and I just could not refuse. So we started that. Well, I talked a bit about that on a past blog, and to this point I have had 3 requests of similar situation. I feel like I am kinda like a “prison info on demand” kinda venue.

One of the “clients” is a mother, the other two are wives. They asked how much I was willing to charge for such services…folks, I don’t know how to answer that.

I mean, if a person really needed my help, I would do my best and not ask for a dime. I mean, I’ve been doing that for YEARS anyway. But if you gave me a choice to do this for money and make a living, or continue to do it for free…I have to choose the former. I mean, I’d like to know what its like to buy some new clothes at LEAST every few months, rather than every couple of years.

If people have enough faith in me to ask for my services, and willing to pay for it, I have to accept it. And if I do so, then those people have to be at the top of my priority. If they email me, they have first priority over regular emails. They will be my focus when I blog, so if a client asked me about the “yard”, then my blog could be for them, to help them understand more about what the prison yard is about.

They become my priority, the ones I will help first. That does not mean I ignore everybody else, and it does not mean I won’t help if you can’t afford it…heck, I know what its like to be broke folks…I’m still waiting for that Billion dollar lotto ticket to fall in my lap.

Anyway, I emailed those folks back today, kinda outlining what I can do. One of my priorities is to get my printing works back, because I used to make a lot of unique prison cards and prison encouragement certificates. Unless I find the CD I might have saved them on, I have to start all over. But that is not a problem, I can do that if necessary.

If this works to any capacity, then I will be actually making some income through my talents and works. I mean, isn’t that what society wants? They want all ex felons to “get a job”. But before some wise-crack says something stupid, tell me this; which serves the greater purpose: working for minimum wage at McDonalds or Wal-Mart…. OR using talents to write and HELP people going through tough times?

So this looks promising for me, at least for now. If I can get a nice number of people willing to support my writings, I can really dig into my writing. Honestly, I want to get to writing new blogs, instead of sharing the “retro” or “archive” blogs. They’re ok, and they help me fill up some space, but if you guys knew me from a few years ago, you KNEW I loved to write, and I wrote a LOT.

So the cool thing is now I might be about to earn some money, if you are one of those that support me, I will do my level best not to let you down. I have not been able to finish my short story of “Defending Job”, which I have been pushing for the last month or so, but I will get around to it sooner or later. There is so much we can talk about folks, and what I have learned is that the things I think of are things those on the outside of prison never considered. When I write about what goes on after a prison visit, I get emails or comments from people who tell me that they never knew about that side of the story.

We have not even scratched the surface of what prison is about, so much to tell you and help you with. I am not trying to impress upon you all the horrors of prison, what I want to help you with is understanding some of the things of prison, and how you can overcome it or at the very least, endure it.

Anyway, I better go, it is 1am here, so I’ll get ready for bed…until then….