#211 Top 3 Prison blogs, chapter 3

Top 3 Prison blogs, ch.3


I say “chapter 3” because its like my third installment. I am trying to keep an eye on the blogs that people are “hitting” so I can have an idea of what I may need to talk more on.

I’ll get to that in a moment, but first off, my best wishes for all those who have, or had, service men and women that are either serve to protect our country, or those who lost their lives doing so. With Memorial Day being tomorrow, I have to give my respects to those in the military. My dad, and two brothers were all in the military, and I knew others that served in the military. We as a country don’t say it enough, but thanks for all you do.

Another thing, I have been working on my “Grades of Honor” books and cards, and had several people ask me for them. I am printing some out for them, and also was fortunate to receive some financial gifts from two people. Its like I feel so empowered when people believe in me, I almost get overwhelmed to not let them down when I blog.

I got a card from a grandmother in Indiana, who has a grandson in prison, and she worries so much about him. She told me she has been reading my blogs, and really appreciates what I say. As she puts it, I don’t sugarcoat anything, which is what she really needs to hear. I try not to hide things from you when we talk about prison, but the greater goal is to encourage you, that no matter what I say that sounds negative, I have to try to give you hope that this is something you can overcome.

I got a couple of emails from some people that asked about how should their loved one carry themselves when they go to prison. There is a lot of stereotypes of guys thinking they should walk into prison and pick a fight with the biggest, toughest guy in the prison…folks…that can get you killed.

That is terrible advice, because you are not the “star actor” in the movie…this is quite real. If a guy is 350 pounds and there for a double murder, doing 99 years, trust me, that is NOT the guy you are going to make a name off of. I emailed a couple of people talking about how they can “carry themselves”, but if you want me to blog it out, I can do that.

Also, I got an email from a wonderful reader who has been very concerned about going to prison. The last couple of months I have been sharing what I could to build faith with her, and I am confident that with God all things are possible. But her last email to me had me thinking, what else can I do to help her. So I told her I would write a blog and talk about it. It’s called “Fighting the Hopeless Times” and the idea was to write about 5 to 8 pages then drop the blog up here…

But it got REALLY long.

I jotted down the points I wanted to make, and when I finished, I looked at it and thought…wow, this is gonna take at LEAST 50 pages…

So that’s what I am gonna work on. I am going to work offline on this document titled “Fighting the hopeless times” with the target of breaking any doubts that God CAN, rather than God MIGHT. That’s the goal, and I am writing it in the prison issue genre. I will likely send her parts of it as I go, but I am not sure I will put it on my blogs unless I get a flood of emails from people wanting to read it. If not, what I will do is maybe put it in short book form and make it available just like my books and stuff.

OK, now we got that out the way, let’s get to the top 3 blogs off my blogsites last week:

#3 Post # 201: Faith for a felon or ex felon:

This is a retro, or older blog, and I wrote 8 pages of this to help those that are having trouble building faith. Now, I know I am not the most religious person in the world, but I can say with God as my witness that I do know a little about faith….as we all do. But many of us don’t apply it when we need it.

The foolish argument is that inmates or ex felons don’t have faith…this is insane folks, and only based on a carnal self righteous opinion. Yet it is important for an inmate or ex felon to have faith, in fact critical. I mean, you want him to be safe right? That requires faith. You want him to do his time as best as possible right? That requires faith. You want him to be able to get out of prison and get his life back right? That requires faith. And when I say faith, it has to be in GOD, not in man.

This is not to say that you don’t believe in man, it is that you give greater faith to God. It is a lesson we all need to work on, including me. But that blog obviously got some of you looking for something, so if you need me to talk more on it, then maybe I can talk more into it another time.

#2 Post # 32: Should you send inmates money?

This has continually been a big concern for a lot of folks, because it is apparent that a lot of you have a loved one in prison and you wonder if, and how much you can send him. If you really consider this, there is a lot of different ways to look at this, and there is no single answer. There is no true “yes” and there is no true “no”. This really is a tricky question to answer, and it would depend squarely on your situation.

This is not meant to deter you one way or the other, but I also don’t want to encourage you to email me about specific details about your loved one. I don’t want to be in a position to judge, if I can help it.

And I know this really is a major subject, because this particular post has been one of my most read blogs that I have put up. For that reason, I wonder if there are other ways I can address the situation. But if you want me to discuss that further, let me know. Maybe there are some angles I have forgotten and might be of a help to you, and others that are looking for answers.

#1 Blog #206: Sending inmates money: the DARK side:

This is by far my “hottest” blog last week. And the thing is, you can tell by the blog number how new it is. I am on I think #211, and usually it takes awhile before newer blogs start getting read by many people.

This is a very touchy subject because whereas the previous blog talked about the general nature of sending money to inmates…this one talks about the hazards of doing it. More than once I have had people ask me about a situation where it seems that the person they were sending money to might not be honest with them.

It really is a hard subject for me to talk about, because in doing so, I may well be pouring cement on my own feet. This is because some who think inmates or ex felons are all crooks are going to naturally assume I am one as well…guilt by association.

And it does not help that I often talk about supporting my blogs, buying my books and the like. But this is indeed a very tough subject, one that is important to blog about. I get emails from time to time from people who give me a scenario, and ask if they can trust the inmate to send money to. Remember folks, every situation is different, and not all inmates are crooks.

If you asked me if you could send me $100, I would say “sure”. But if you sent it to me, and found out I bought some video games with it, would you think any less of me than the day you sent the money?

Now, if you sent it to me because I said I needed to buy ink, and would use your money to buy myself some ink for the printer, so I can print some cards, certificates and books, then I would be misleading you if I turned around and bought some video games…but if 3 or 4 people sent me $100 each, then I could easily buy what I need, and have money left over to do something to make me happy, or help my mom.

Yet if I mislead you on what I would use it for, you might get the idea that I was never honest in the first place. This is a very delicate thing that I could apply to inmates in prison, because the belief MIGHT be that once you are stung, you may believe you were always being stung….this is not totally true.

It is very possible that the first time, or first few times, you sent an inmate money, he might have used it wisely and exactly as he said. But money is addictive folks, you tend to like it, and want more of it, especially when you are flat broke. In prison, it can be easy for even a decent guy to get attached to a person who sends him money. But for every guy who honestly is thankful for money, there is one that is scheming to get more and more money from you. If you have a loved one who always seems to have an excuse to need more money, stop and think a bit. After all, its YOUR money, right?

Anyway, those were my top 3 blogs of last week, the plan this week is to write more on that blog I was telling you about, to get some cards and prison encouragement certificates ready, and to fill a few orders of my Grades of Honor books.

I’ll be honest folks, when I did a post on “Do Prisons Lie”, I had so many interesting emails from it that I might have to get back to “Grades of Honor” part 4. There is sooooooooooooooooooo much I have not shared with you guys, and if you are new to my blogs, there is soooooooooooooooooo much I wrote in the past that I need to share with you.

We have much to talk about, if you are willing to listen. Until then…