- Your name and where are you from? What year were you incarcerated and when were you released? My name is Nick, I am from Greensboro, NC. I was incarcerated from 2018-2024.
- While incarcerated did you take any classes or make plans for when you come home to help aid your transition? While incarcerated I was enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill where I studied in Sociology, Psychology, Criminology, and Spanish course. I also took classes available on site at the prison such as Thinking for a Change, Cognitive Behavioral Intervention, and Anger Management.
- How was the transition from prison back into society? At first, I was self- conscious about my transition to society because the etiquette standards are so different, small things such as distance from one another in public settings and common courtesy are almost non-existent in society just due to people never truly knowing the magnitude of characters they may encounter in daily life. Technology was also a major factor; I remember when I first saw somebody use their phone for “tap to pay” at the gas station I was mind blown.
- What keeps you from not going back? What is your motivation? My biggest motivation to not reoffend is just never forgetting the living conditions I was under, from the food, to the mat, to the intensity of the prison politics, or just those long nights in solitary confinement with your stomach rumbling and no access to anything but sink water. It’s a blessing just to be able to live under no constrictions so that keeps me more thankful than anything.
- Honestly, I know laws help keep our society in order, but if I could change something it would be the limitations on the sentencing in North Carolina. You have individuals who are not the same person they were at the time of their crime, and they are not given a slight chance of hope to portray that. Life sentences in NC is a LIFE sentence, not 20 years not 25 years but LIFE! Most states they have parole eligibility after a period of time into their sentence if they are constructive, in NC whatever minimum you are sentence to there is no way around that, you will do that minimum 100% and majority of the time you’re lucky if you get out on the minimum cause majority will still be incarcerated past that minimum.
- Would you like to leave some encouraging words for those who are still incarcerated or the youth of the community? For my Comrades in the struggle, just keep striving and hold your head, good things will come in due time just stay 10 toes in the meantime and remember our trials shape us they do not make us.
