My story, and how this is all possible

Introduction:

   This post will be relatively long, and not of the technical or humorous
   content that I hope to write in the future, simply because the tl;dr
   just doesn’t cut it here. You don’t just throw out words like “dev-log
   from my prison cell” and not follow through with a story… Not if you
   expect anyone to read your blog anyway :P

   My name is Preston Thorpe, I’m 31 years old and I’ve spent just under
   10 years of my life in Prison (all for non-violent drug crimes.) I am
   currently incarcerated at Mountain View Correctional Facility in
   Charleston, Maine. More importantly, far more importantly, I am a
   software developer, open source maintainer, contributor and all around
   enthusiast. I am a Rust fanatic (and currently rather Ocaml curious),
   and I am one of those Arch linux(btw), Neovim, Alacritty, Tmux, tiling
   window manager loving geeks that do everything possible from the
   command line.

   Idk who will even end up reading this, but thats the whole idea of
   blogs right? Ideally maybe the Primeagen will read it at some point, I
   feel like it’s right up his alley. I have lots of respect for him, I
   really appreciate him sharing his own story and particularly the
   message of working hard for what you want, and also to stay away from
   bullshit/drugs. He has actually been a pretty big inspiration for me in
   the tech world and I’ve been following him for over a year now. So on
   the off-chance that you’re reading this: Thanks for being the only
   source of entertainment I’ve allowed myself for the last year+.

   Anyway…

   The (relatively) short version: I was a stupid 17yr old computer geek,
   spending my highschool years in the ‘05-‘09 warez and torrent
   scenes(r.i.p. oink.cd) and was kicked out of my parents house for being
   a stupid 17yr old like many kids are, but instead of ending up broke
   and homeless sleeping in my car or on couches (I did that for a bit too
   though), and coming back to Mom + Dad’s apologetic, as I’m sure was
   their plan; I ended up stumbling head-first into the world of the pre
   silk-road/Dark-web internet wholesale drugs. This was a place where
   chemicals could be bought for pennies from sketchy companies in India,
   China, and there were vendors in Canada, Holland, Germany, etc that
   sold bulk of whatever you wanted all by email referral.

   So instead of coming back home broke and apologetic, I ended up
   trafficking pretty enormous amounts of stuff into the country and
   making tens of thousands of dollars a week, very much unapologetically.
   At age 20, I was arrested the first time. I was caught (mostly) with
   MDMA coming in the mail from Vancouver. Fortunately for me, this was my
   first offense, otherwise I’m sure they would have been happy to charge
   me for the many many more packages they probably could have proved that
   I had received.

   Prison:

   I have found that I adapt pretty well to just about whatever situation
   I happen to be put in, Prison was no different. Although, these people
   were very different from the hippie/raver/music festival people I dealt
   with on the street. These people were hardcore addicts, who many of
   were into crimes and a lifestyle that I had no part of. The thing about
   prison is that it has its own sub-culture, it’s own lingo, it’s own set
   of morality.. and this is enforced by an extremely negative
   group-think, strict mindset that we are criminals: we hate cops, we
   hate rats, pedophiles, thieves(only if you steal from other inmates,
   you can steal whatever you want from any grandma on the street) and
   anyone that has ever “PC”‘d (asked for Protective Custody due to fear
   of violence from another inmate(s)). This mindset is strictly enforced
   on everyone living in population, and spending a few years around such
   negativity will change anyone. In prison, there is nothing to do:
   except get tattoos, work out, and wait for some kind of drama to unfold
   so you can either watch something go down, or participate in it.

   A few years later, I left prison with $0 in my pocket (lawyers and
   commissary are expensive, and nobody pays you what they owe you when
   you come in), to a rooming house with hallways that smelled like
   crack-smoke and were filled with parole officers and junkies. I was
   left with the difficult choice of either living there and walking to a
   temp agency with hopes of making $10.50/hour doing manual labor
   (without an ID or social security card at this point), or getting on a
   bus to NYC to see some associates, and coming back in a week or so with
   $15-25k in my pocket and living in comfy luxury hotels until I could
   rent an apartment… I chose the latter, obviously, and was back in
   prison after 14mo.

   I have been incarcerated now on this sentence since May of 2017, I came
   in with a terrible attitude, a terrible outlook on life, and no hope
   for my future. I have spent almost 3 years all-together in 22-23hr
   solitary confinement over the years (10% of my life?), and at one point
   I had truly become one of the people that looked at me when I first
   came to prison at age 20, and asked “Is this your first bid?”, to which
   everyone replies “first? I”m not coming back here!”, to which there is
   always laughter from the older heads. Everyone says that, but everyone
   comes back…

   Growing up:

   My shenanigans and the ‘influence’ I had in the relatively small prison
   system that I came from, ended up getting me put on an inter-state
   transfer list after 13mo in solitary confinement (for no disciplinary
   action.) “Safety and security of the facility” is the official reason
   it says on my classification paperwork. Little did I know, this would
   be the best thing that would ever happen to me.

   Because I had no disciplinary action, and I guess very some fortunate
   timing, I got transferred to Maine, which is not a state that I thought
   was even an option as it does not have a reputation for taking
   ‘problem’ inmates from other states.

   The prison system in Maine is different from all others, as the inmate
   population is insulated from most of the street/prison gangs that
   generally run things. Not having to deal with the Politics and the
   drama was refreshing, and a bit of a shock at first. Quickly I realized
   that my time could just be spent on myself, trying to improve my life
   or just do what I wanted with my time. I began to focus my time on
   things like teaching myself about organic chemistry, and finance,
   options trading, and I began for the first time to realize that I might
   be capable of more than what I had resided on, and that I could end
   doing whatever I put my mind to.

   I had previously accepted my fate, as one must when you get a 10+ year
   sentence, otherwise you’ll go insane constantly thinking about what you
   could have done different or what you could have been doing with your
   life. But I had accepted my fate, as a criminal. I had accepted the
   identity, and the lifestyle, and the misery, and the mindset that comes
   along with it.

   One day, I woke up and looked around me, and had what can only be
   described as an epiphany. All of a sudden, all the conversations I
   would hear about drugs and war stories, all just sounded like absolute
   bullshit to me, and I was suddenly ashamed that I ever participated in
   it. From that point, I no longer felt like it was okay or normal that I
   was locked up in a cage, and the acceptance and self-identity as being
   a ‘criminal’ no longer felt like something I was okay with.

   When it was available to me, I enrolled in College through the
   University of Maine Augusta, and before classes even started, I was
   completely enthralled with the idea of learning how to program again
   (it had been 15 years since I had done some PHP + simple websites, so
   not a lot had left over). Who else has an opportunity to spend 12+
   hours a day learning something for years? With no other obligations or
   responsibilities? It all of a sudden clicked, that I would dedicate the
   remainder of my time to learning everything I could about computer
   science, and teaching myself software development.

   During the pandemic, staff were sympathetic to the residents here, who
   were unable to see loved ones, and unable to spend their time on the
   internet when everything was shut down and we were locked in our rooms
   like they had. This brought about the internet being brought into a
   prison system, for probably the first time in the country. Being
   technically inclined, led me the opportunity to work for the education
   department and I ended up helping considerably in getting things
   working properly. And I still do.

   After helping with the network for some time and implementing some
   software solutions for the DOC, when I asked for permission to seek
   remote employment, they obliged. I was one of the first people in the
   country to to be allowed to be on “remote work-release” from a medium
   security prison.

   I believe this highlights the fact that you cannot take opportunities
   that you are not given, and I would never be in the position I am now:
   a completely changed man, working full-time from my cell, with a career
   doing what I love not only programming, but also helping improve the
   system.([1]details); if this opportunity wasn’t given to me in the form
   of a laptop and limited internet access. This is an incredibly rare
   situation, Maine is the only state in the country where these
   particular opportunities exist at all (and for a limited number of
   residents, currently just those enrolled in College, and there are many
   restrictions).

   I would like to bring whatever awareness possible to the importance of
   education and rehabilitation for those 2.2 million Americans currently
   incarcerated (particularly those affected by the war on drugs, like
   myself, who has spent 1/3 of his life imprisoned for non-violent drug
   crimes). Access to education and technology is severely limited in the
   U.S. prison system and I am incredibly fortunate to be in a situation
   where I am permitted to have remote employment and access to
   participate in things like Open source projects.

   I am very grateful for the opportunity, but I recognize that this is
   very much the exception and not the rule, and the success of the Maine
   model of corrections should highlight the absolutely embarrassing lack
   of opportunities in the rest of the system, to do anything but become a
   bitter, broke criminal; deprived of not just your freedom, family,
   financial security and reputation, but also of your self-identity as
   someone worth investing in changing. We need to do better as a society,
   and understand that, yes, there are people in the system that deserve
   this kind of punishment, but a large majority of our prison population
   are just regular people… non-violent drug offenders like myself. There
   are plenty more, like me, that are capable of being responsible,
   productive, tax paying members of society if given the opportunity, but
   you cannot expect anyone to change when you just lock them up in a cage
   with a bunch of other criminals where there is a subculture of endless
   negativity.

   If you are interested in helping support the education of incarcerated
   and justice-impacted individuals, please consider donating to a company
   like the one I currently work for, [2]Unlocked Labs or similar
   non-profits like [3]The Last Mile or [4]Recidiviz that are working to
   improve the system of mass-incarceration and provide opportunities for
   the incarcerated to learn and grow.

   Thanks for taking the time to read this…

   -P
     * [5]2023 3

2023

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References

   1. https://unlockedlabs.org/
   2. https://unlockedlabs.org/
   3. https://thelastmile.org/
   4. https://www.recidiviz.org/
   5. file:///tmp/lynxXXXX0l9yOE/L1424940-4383TMP.html#2023
   6. file:///tmp/lynxXXXX0l9yOE/L1424940-4383TMP.html#page-title