Weather lockdown?? I think that may be a new one over here at T.I. but that is what we experienced this past weekend. It started raining late Friday night and by the time everyone woke up Saturday morning… we were literally and figuratively… on an island. No phones… no computer… no visiting… no yard… nothing. So… unfortunately I didn’t have any time to write this weekend but I wanted to share a quick conversation that I had on Saturday…
I was talking to one of the homeboys in here that recently was a part of an “incident” that caused him to go to the SHU for a bit and receive a “shot” which is a disciplinary infraction. One of the main reasons… outside of going to the hole… to stay out of trouble in here is to avoid getting one of these shots because they can substantially negatively impact your time. They can cause you to lose priviledges such as the phone… commissary…visits but more importantly… with the implementation of the First Step Act… getting a disciplinary infraction increases your “recidivism points” which could potentially disqualify you from receiving First Step Act (FSA) credits. In order to take advantage of the FSA credits… you need to have Minimum or Low recidivism points meaning that your behavior and programming since you have been incarcerated shows that you have an extremely low or low risk of re-offending when you are released and therefore… are eligible to be released much earlier than your official release date.
My homeboy just had a meeting with his counselor and he was informed that due to the shot that he just received… his points jumped up from a low to a medium and therefore he lost all of his First Step Credits until his points return to a low. He was to be released early next year after serving 8 years and now his release date is pushed back to early 2028. Absolutely crushing. Even more sad is due to the nature of the shot… no amount of programming or work that he does in here will lower his points enough between now and 2028 to bring his recidivism back to a low and allow him to take advantage of his FSA credits again. So… it is now 2028.
I am heartbroken for him. We sat in the unit and talked about the situation for an hour or so and he said something that stuck with me. We were talking about the incident and how your actions have such ridiculous consequences…what he was thinking at the time and if we could just rewind time and change the smallest things… and he said… “Hollywood… I’ll be honest bro. I can’t go back to yesterday… I was a completely different person then.” “Say more man… what do you mean?” I said. He went on to explain that yesterday… he was getting out in 10 months… he had been planning his release with his daughter for months… talking about what they were going to do when he got out… how he was going to make it to her middle school graduation… the Dad that was going to be and how excited he was to have another chance at life. And now… that is all over… he isn’t the person that he was yesterday with all those hopes and plans in his immediate future… today he is an inmate again with 4 more years before he can be that person. Man… that was hard to hear but in many ways… very true.
I went on to try and ease the blow a bit and focus on what he can actively do while he is in here instead of what he can’t do… but in all honesty… I understand his feeling and his sentiment. I think it is crucially important to remember that every one of our actions… every one of our decisions has the power to completely change the trajectory of our lives. That one decision that you make today potentially has the ability to make you a different person tomorrow. That is powerful and something that I will never forget. Our actions and decisions have real consequences… for us and our loved one… make them consciously and wisely.