A few days ago I was standing in a hallway, stalled from moving around the prison due to a ‘closed quarters blue light’. I have always been somewhat of an oddity here in prison, sparking people’s curiosity. I have been described as ‘aristocratic’, which I find hilarious, because I was simply a peasant septic installer before all this. It didn’t feel very aristocratic driving home with dirt, mud and other people’s crap all over my clothes…but I digress.
While standing in the hallway, the discussion turned to what I would do when ‘Trump sets you free’ (which, God willing he will). I told them I planned on working with my wife’s Non-Profit called Left Behind and Without (www.LeftBehindandWithout.org) which is dedicated to helping kids with incarcerated parents enroll in sports, music, drama, dance and camps, any program that can help them have good social connections and positive adult mentorship. The inmates lit up, they said that was great, many of them mentioned they could use something like that for their kids. The discussion turned to intergenerational incarceration.
Almost immediately upon my incarceration and in every institution I have been, without regards to race, there seems to be one massive commonality; almost everyone’s Father was incarcerated while they were kids. This particular discussion was with 8 men. 100% of the men, aside from myself, stuck in the hall that day, had had their Father incarcerated while they were kids/teenagers. 3 of the men, were actually old enough to already have kids over 18…Want to know something devastating: 100% of the men had an incarcerated Father, and the 3 with adult kids, all 3 of them had already seen their adult sons go to jail. Meaning those families had at least 3 generations of incarceration.
Like military service often runs in families, so apparently do prison sentences. How can this happen in our society? Ultimately criminals must be held accountable, but the fact that crime seems to run in families and is epidemic in certain neighborhoods and cities, we as a society have a lot to work on. Recently I heard on the radio that in America 1 in 3 adult Black men is a felon! According to Yahoo News, in 2007, 1 in 30 adults was under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and 1 in 28 children had an incarcerated parent. The soft on crime answers won’t solve these problems, if anything they probably exacerbate them. But, there is one thing we can do, we can stop the cycle in its tracks, one family at a time, by focusing on the next generation.
When I think of Making America Great Again, MAGA, along with a strong economy, strong military, leading the world in technological innovation, I also think of healing America’s families. It needs to start with this generation. We will never be able to ‘pay restitution’ for our past mistakes, that’s just not how things work, but we can chart a new course forward. When this is over, I want to dedicate myself to helping the children of incarcerated adults not ‘pay for the sins of their fathers’ and help them to STOP the cycles that have devastated entire family lines. Quality Adult mentorship, constructive activities after school, having goals and something to work towards, learning discipline whether by being on a wrestling team, a dance squad, or learning to play the piano or guitar can go a long way to begin the healing of our country.
Our choices make all the difference. I want to be free to choose to ‘Be the change I want to see in the world’, and one of the things I want to do is stop the cycle, to stop seeing generation after generation serve time in prison. I would rather them serve the community with their choices to start Keeping America Great. I hope to soon be returned to my family to help Trump with the MAGA agenda, to Make America Great Again, the way I feel inspired to do it. I am grateful to have experienced this, though painful it has been. I am grateful for the support my family has received. I am also blessed that the few dozen children my wife has enrolled in programs have been blessed because of this experience. God is a mysterious man, he makes that which was intended for Evil turn to Good; Providence.
Taylor