c/o Kevin E. Grote #173824
3855 Cooper Street
Jackson, MI 49201-7517
Special Edition / Introductory Issue / Cyber Space Edition
March, 1998
"Shedding a Little Light from Within"
Hi! Welcome to the premier and introductory issue of "The Prisoner's Perspective's" Cyber-Space Edition. I sincerely hope that this will be the first of many times that you will take a few moments from your busy life to spend some time with us as we strive towards the goal of bridging the walls, bars and fences of human incarceration.
In January of 1997 an inspirational thought came to me; to write a little paper of thought and insight of life from a prisoner's point of view, to share with you, its readers, the plight of life as a prisoner, to help you, as a person, to better know and understand the thoughts, feelings and philosophy of life from those living within the walls, bars and fences of human incarceration.
Who better than I, a man of average intelligence, serving a natural life sentence with 15 years of incarcerated experience and the ability to put the thoughts into cohesive phrases, would take on such a challenge?
When I began writing and producing "The Prisoner's Perspective" in January of 1997 I had a mailing list of 21 people, mostly friends and family, and no idea that the interest and curiosity of such things were so common and wide-spread throughout free society.
Since that time, the interest in receiving and reading "The Prisoner's Perspective" has grown and the current mailing list is nearly 150 strong and growing almost daily as the requests for mailing list placement continue to arrive,
Are you one who is truly interested in, or concerned about the prisoner plight? Would you really like to know and better understand the thoughts and feelings of those you once felt it necessary to incarcerate? If so, then you should receiving and reading "The Prisoner's Perspective."
Aren't you sick and tired of reading or hearing about the Government's interest and need to build more and more prisons? Wouldn't you like to see a better or alternative solution to the problem of prison overcrowding? Don't you wonder, sometimes, if those you elected are being truthful about the need for more prisons, after all, it is your hard earned tax dollars that they are asking for, to build more prisons. If you are wondering, or pausing for a moment to contemplate these issues, then maybe you should be receiving and reading "The Prisoner's Perspective."
Wouldn't it be good to hear, or learn, that not all prisoners are like Manson, Bundy, Gates or Williams? Wouldn't it be good to learn that most prisoners are not so different from you and that the only real difference is that they made a mistake at some point in their lives which brought them to prison. If you think so, then maybe you should be receiving and reading "The Prisoner's Perspective."
As a man, and a prisoner, who is one day destined to die, alone and lonely in a cold and desolate 8 x 10 prison cell, and someone who is achieving positive personal and interpersonal growth in spite of life's circumstances rather than because of them, I can assure you that positive changes, more often than not, do transpire in those who happen to come to prison, and that not all prisoners are the cold, heartless, mean and callused individuals that the Government portrays them to be. When was the last time you read or heard a good story about what is, or has, happened within the confines of a prison setting?
The truth of it is that the Government and the Media rarely, if ever, portrays the positive side of incarceration as if you, and the rest of the general public knew that side of the coin there is less of a likelihood of them getting you to accept the tax hikes or the hype about what is happening in the penal systems throughout the United States.
In Michigan, not so long ago, the upper echelon of the State's Government gave themselves a pay raise while making an outcry to the taxpayers for more tax dollars to build and enhance the growth of the prison industry that they are making money from. It is the wrongful portrayal of the stigmas and connotations associated with the fears of prisoners that allow them to wrongfully bilk you out of unnecessary tax dollars, as the truth being told, the majority of prisoners really do not need to be incarcerated any longer as they are ready for a return to free society if they were given the chance.
Come, join "The Prisoner's Perspective's" family or friends, help us to be able to show you, through sharing it, that we are not as we are portrayed, we are just people, just like you, we feel as you do, we care as you do and we act as you do. If you pause for just a moment and think about it you will realize that we are just like you as we are your brothers and sisters, your husbands and wives, your sons and daughters, and your friends, but above all else, we are simply people who have made a costly mistake in life.
"The Prisoner's Perspective" Cyber-Space Edition will be appearing here soon and will be updated on a bi-monthly basis, but you may write, snail-mail, if you wish, to begin receiving "The Prisoner's Perspective" in paperback version.
Laura Stout
20993 County Road 64
Robertsdale, Alabama 36567