It’s a few days before Christmas and in a few days it will be another year gone. It’s hard to swallow sometimes that it will be 28 years being locked behind bars for a first time offender. Those words, cruel and unusual, definitely come to mind. To be honest it’s exactly like dying and then one day you’re back alive. In my mind, I’m thinking life and people are exactly the same people, I remembered them being. That’s not the case. Imagine these scenarios. It will be safe to start with my oldest sister. When I left she was simple, she would say something smart ass and that would be followed wit ..read more

Can you make a difference: good or bad? I have to be careful about saying ‘it depends’ but I will go further ‘it depends on the situation or the individual.’ For instance, I take the time out for people that are trying to do better. In order to spot this you have to see what a person does and not what a person says. I once was told: ‘read with your eyes and think with your mind and what a great discovery you will find.’ Joe The kid’s name was Joe. He was also a country boy just like me. It drew me to him. What also drew me was the efforts he did to get his GED. The kid struggled with comprehen ..read more

When I was a simple little chunky kid, I was terrified of the Boogie Man. I had never heard of anyone being hurt, killed or touched by this fictional character that terrorized neighborhoods from New York to California and every state in between. Rumors The last thing I’d ever imagined is that one day I would be called something close! I guess it would be safe to say the rumors about the first character I was, was ‘Smitty’ , a nickname I carried for years in Lufkin Texas. That guy was a womanizer, thief, drug dealer, crook, gambler and in some cases dangerous. But what’s surprising is the rumor ..read more

Johanna told me that she went to the Fotomuseum in Rotterdam 2 times in March 2022 for the exhibition ‘Beyond reasonable doubt’. This exhibition tells the story of Christina Boyer and her conviction. It is not an easy exhibition because in 1992 Christina was wrongly convicted for the murder of her then 3 year old daughter.  The exhibition was created by Jan Banning, a photographer fighting for justice in words and images. He made amongst others,  the exhibition ‘Comfort Girls’ and he became internationally known for the exhibition ‘Bureaucrats’. How it began In 2018, Banning was in G ..read more

I am participating in the essay contest  from The USC Prison Education Project in Los Angeles. The goal is to write a creative story about what an education means to me. This is the essay I wrote for the 2022 NATIONAL ADULT IMPACTED WRITERS CONTEST Let’s be CLEAR, I failed every class from grade four to seven – flunked the seventh and the ninth. Quit high school twice. The sad thing is,  I was GIVEN my high school diploma with ten credits. Upon entering prison with a murder charge and a fifty year sentence, I thought my life was absolutely over. Depressed, a fellow inmate suggested c ..read more

It’s always a musty smell seemingly coming off inmates at the end of a long turbulent ride through prison. After serving 27 years and 6 months, it seems that I have spent my entire adult life behind bars. To compound matters, I have spent more time incarcerated than free. It sometimes feels like my time spent outside of prison was a sort of a dream/nightmare that I find myself hoping to relive once again.As I move closer to that Parole date, I have discovered my fear of screwing up -or in my case- fighting and getting a written infraction looms large. I should explain. I were relocated to anot ..read more

The first three chapters of Derrick’s autobiography  Chapter 1 – ‘And the struggle begins’   Derrick L. Griffin   My home is none other than Lufkin, Texas. The small town where I always felt incredibly comfortable. Hearing an abundance of farm animals was normal.  Most homes in my neighborhood were smallish wood frame houses. Families were generally larger. This was definitely prior to the crack cocaine epidemic of the 80’s that ruined virtually every African American neighborhood in that general area. Lufkin Land, my neighborhood was mostly a working class commun ..read more

My housing   After 20 years I was transferred from one prison to another, one of the oldest prison units in Texas. After arriving I received my housing. I entered the cellblock. The drab dull walls had paint peeling of them. The light bulb in the genitor’s closet was out, which reminded me of a dangerous dark alley. I looked around. The day room was large and set off in a way no security guard could see any activity. Four phones trailed on the back wall. To the immediate right were three rows of steel benches. Directly in front of the benches was a flat screen TV. On the opposite side of ..read more

I have to control my emotions. I have learned: ‘Winners are just ex-losers who got mad’ (Van Crouch). Being incarcerated, I learned that persistence has power, faith and work. Your help comes when you work to get there. If you lay in bed and wait for the world to revolve around you in your wreckless emotional state, you’re mistaken. No one cares if you’re whining about fairness and unfairness. Internalize it and use it for gas in your tank. Work – Work – Work! Derrick L. Griffin, 5-11-2021 Het bericht Emotions verscheen eerst op Derrick's Prison Blog ..read more

I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my ship. The power of imagination I used to destroy my thinking is the same power I will use to correct my thinking. People who inspire me in this process are:   Harriet Tubman. She was born into slavery but was able to escape and made about 13 missions to rescue about 70 enslaved people using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream in the 60’s that all inhabitants of the United States would be judged by their personal qualities and not by the color of their s ..read more