****** THE PERFECT STORM ****** ****** OF ****** ****** INCARCERATION ****** ***************************** ****** WRITTEN BY ****** ****** CARL E. SIMPSON-RUSSELL ****** *************************************** ****** PAGE #1 ****** ********************* There is a silent plague sweeping the nation. A plague that is often overlooked, and even less understood. Recidivism, and the causes of such an event, are at present day a great mystery. I will be outlining the recipe of ingrediance, that in my mind, when mixed together in this melting pot called life, have caused my ship to sail a stray into the Perfect Storm of incarceration. I truly believe that there are number of things, that when introduced into a persons life, have the power to change, a good man, a man of God, into me, inmate #66838. The environment I grew accustom to as a child, was that of the new kid. My step father worked heavy construction, which in turn took us to what ever city had the next big job. I quickly became a professional at making new friends, and fitting in. I was like a chameleon, who could morph into his new surrounding in order to blend in and even thrive. There were of course draw backs to this kind of un ethical behavior. In order to be, cool and, excepted, I had to be a risk taker. If someone offered me a cigarette at age 5, I had no choice but to smoke it. If someone wanted to break into a car when I was 10 years old, there I was throwing a rock through the window. Unfortunately this type of behavior would set the ground work for the sleeping giant that lay in wait Drug Abuse. I smoked marijuana for the first time at age 11, I was at a friends house and his older brother offered me a bong hit. There were a lot of people around and the peer pressure was around 10,000 P.S.I. It only took a New York minute for Satans talons of destruction to sink in, and strip away a sweet and innocent young boy, and replace it with the train wreck of a human being I have become today. My rapid growing drug abuse would have an unforeseen bi-product that would help as a catalyst in regards to me being an animal locked in a cage. This new chaotic world I was living in would lead to a whole new lifestyle, a lifestyle that I would soon thrive in but that I would not wish on my worst enemy. Soon I would trade in all my morals, I would cash in on all the years I strived on being a good, and honest man. Now my life would be full of only sin and despair. I couldnt keep a job and that in turn meant I couldnt pay bills so SHAAZAM homeless I became. The stresses that came with making such a plethora of bad choices would soon lead me to a mental breakdown. I now lived my life with a 500 pound gorilla on my back and its first name was drug, and its last name was addiction. I would like to end this paper with a couple of analogies that I feel are pertinent to this story. The choices I have made have lead directly to the lifestyle I have lived. The lifestyle I have lived has caused me to break the law, and in turn incarceration was in evadable. I cant speak for everyone but as soon as I was IN THE SYSTEM I became a helpless fawn stuck in quicksand. The harder I fought to get out, the quicker it pulled me to the bottom. I Carl E. Simpson-Russell am at a crossroad in my life. It reminds me of the story of the two mice that fell into the bucket of cream. The first mouse simple gives up on life and drowns. The second mouse never stops fighting and soon he has thrashed around so much that he eventually churns the cream into butter and crawls out to live to fight another day. Which mouse am I, do I choose to throw in the towel and just give up on life. Or do I choose to fight and take a stand so that I too can live to fight another day. I can show my children by example what it is to be a good man! They say that my lifestyle will lead me to one of three places. JAILS, (CHECK) INSTITUTIONS, (CHECK) DEATH,( NOT TODAY !) ****** THE END! ******
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 21:48:28 +0000
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