Author Archives: mjwayblog

Our new ADW was not liking that Jesse was absent from our staff meetings. He began to intimidate some of the teachers, but I found him to be quite interesting. The prisoners hated him and I didn’t think that was all that bad. He had been one of them at one time and was assaultedContinue reading “Au Revoir Jesse”

               1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18  Once the GED testing service identified the jail and school district servicing them as the culprits for the security breach, all GED testing was stopped for South East Michigan, and exams were turned back into the GED testing service. This put our prison school into a state of flux. It wasContinue reading “Jesse 4”

              2 Corinthians 5: 14-21   Jesse’s plans to retire were unknown to anyone except Jesse. We would get to work with him for another three years and it would be memorable. It started with a staff meeting where the academic teachers had decided it would be way too difficult for the school to completeContinue reading “Jesse 3”

              Psalm 25:16-22   Jesse had other plans. Speaking with him, he felt that all of his friends who had retired died shortly there after, and he wasn’t going to do that anytime soon. When I first met him he smoked and drank without a care in the world, and he reminded me of the proverbialContinue reading “Jesse 2”

 Jesse said what ever he wanted. He had no filter. He was beholding to know one. I couldn’t help but like him. When I interviewed for the trades instructor position at the prison he told me as I was leaving that they had over 240 applicants for the position at this prison. However, he wanted me.Continue reading “Jesse”

 I have seen some evil in my time but nothing compared to what evil this inmate brought to this world, and his community. He was a serial murderer and rapist. The trail of bodies he left behind would eventually get him caught. I had to take three classes of Psychology as an under graduate studentContinue reading “Mephistophelian”

I was told the bushes had to be removed. Now!!! When I had received that kind of an order, and the way it was delivered to me, I always asked the wrong question. I could tell it was the wrong question by the expression on the face of the person delivering the order. They seemedContinue reading “The Bushes”

Psalm 18: 1-6 I wasn’t much of a country boy. I was raised in the city and I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of people boarding buses, the downtown department stores, and what I thought was some incredible architecture. My mother didn’t drive a car. She didn’t need to. She knew how to ride theContinue reading “Hay”

The fog just never cleared for him. The corrections officers administered four narcan epi-pens before they got a heartbeat. In the last few years of teaching at the prison overdosing on what they believed to be fentanyl started becoming a weekly occurrence. There was a whole new protocol on handling suspected overdoses. This just addedContinue reading “Drugs & More”

Some of my student’s heroes were not sport’s stars. It didn’t surprise me. Gold chains, large bankrolls, gold grills, large diamond rings, expensive cars, designer clothes and what they called “hot babes” were the makings of successful drug lords who employed them. They were easily led. Many were parentless at a very young age andContinue reading “City Drug Wars”