42 Straight Years In

I served 42 straight years in the now Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the former Texas Department of Corrections. I arrived in prison in 1975. During that era Texas used the brutal Inmate Guard system. The inmate guards were known as Building Tenders and Turnkeys. The order of the day was violence to control the inmate population. Also, there was a heavy emphasis placed on performing manual labor in the fields. Field work was mandatory with very few exceptions. During the course of my incarceration, I earned three college degrees, including a Doctorate Degree. My doctoral dissertation was published as a college textbook: Islam Demystified, Amazon Books. I am the only current or former inmate who has published a college textbook that is being used in a University.