Life After Incarceration

The life you live today reflects on those around you. At the age of 48, I was arrested and sentenced to a year in lock-up. Charged with a crime, I had to make the most from the set down. You can not think of the thoughts of the poor pitiful me because, when you have children and grandchildren, you are not the only one experiencing the moment. For years, I dwelled on the events in my life that were mentally and financially affecting my kids too. I did not choose the right ways to cope with the tragedies that were in my life, and drugs and alcohol affected everyone around me. Too often, we become so self-absorbed that we can not see how our actions affect everyone around us.

In the beginning, I was a dedicated student and hopeful in my journey of life. A 1987 high school graduate headed to college and determined to help others by working in the health care field of nursing. Life took a different toll for me after an event that leads to a downhill spiral of addictions and eventually incarceration. Thankful for the set down because it saved my life, I started to grasp the idea that this label no longer mattered. Yes, I was a female charged with a crime, but taking the time that the set down gave me, and I started to continue the education that I had started so long ago.

Today, I am a college graduate with an Associate of Science in Health and Human Services, and I am grateful for the opportunity to do what I can to help those experiencing what I did. The mind has to become conditioned to adapt to the thoughts of lock-up, and returning to the free world is not always easy to adjust to after a long lock-up. If you have never experienced life with no freedom and try to cope in the free world, then you are not capable of understanding the mind of that person. I am attending online classes to pursue a degree in Health and Social Services, and the Bachelor of Science degree will aid me even further with the skills to help others. In reflection, I look to the already known knowledge of health and wellness. During lock-up, I found whatever way I could to exercise. Exercise is any movement made. But remembering self-care is hard when in lock-up.

I have always had an obsession with science. How did the body and mind work in unison? What is the importance of spirituality when it comes to health and wellness? I am a firm believer that everything needs a Christ-Centered Approach. Whatever choices we make, we must ask ourselves who is benefitting from the actions? Here is when I reflect again. The choices I made then and the choices I am better equipped with now are totally different than before. I no longer allow the label to control my thoughts and actions. Prison changed me for the better. Yet some are so used to being locked-up that there is no other mindset but the "Incarcerated Mind". I thank the authority figures in my life, friends, and family for saving my life by setting me down. To pay it forward, I am striving to help others with the same life-controlling problems and the free world mindset that is needed.

As many read today, the prison system here in the state of Mississippi is failing. With greater understanding, I have lived in the confinements of that system, but now I am equipped with the mindset to better the helping. The increasing percentage of individuals living in addiction and homelessness are the thoughts today. We all have free will, and what we choose to do with that free will reflects on everyone around us.

Confident and Obtimistic,

Melanie D.