(5/11) “Everything changed for me when someone screamed ‘punk...

(5/11)  “Everything changed for me when someone screamed ‘punk ass’ at the prison captain.  He was walking through the parking lot.  It was early in the morning, and it was still dark, so he couldn’t see who did it.  I was working in the kitchen, so there was no way it could be me.  But the captain said that he recognized my voice, and he wrote me up.  After that he started picking on me.  I tried to keep my head low.  But the more I tried to do good, the more I got punished.  He wrote me up for all kinds of phony things.  He accused me of stealing a newspaper.  He accused me of faking sick.  The negative reports kept piling up, until I was one mark away from being sent back up the hill.  And that’s when they started putting me on the road.  It was the worst job in the prison.  They’d call your name before sunrise, and you had to get on this bus.  Then they’d drive you all over Raleigh to clean trash off the highways.  It was awful.  People would be throwing hamburgers and milkshakes at you.  And it was almost winter, so it was starting to get cold.  That’s when I started planning and plotting.  I saved up my money.  I memorized the bus route.  I noticed that we always stopped at a certain intersection, right next to a wooded area.  And I figured I could make that distance in no time at all.  I also noticed that the guard who worked on Tuesday never searched the prisoners as they boarded the bus.  So one Monday night, while we were watching the Colts game on TV, I made the decision.  That was going to be my last night in prison.”