MyTimeToBlog
Twelve months of my life have been changed traumatically as I navigated Nottoway Correctional Center in Virginia. Now I will express that there were amazing triumphs in the year 2025, but that's not what this story is about. So sit back, and thank whatever deity you believe in that you aren't in prison.
The first memory that I wish to forget is when Steve asked me if I wanted to make some money. He and I weren't social at all, but his celly and I were old workout buddies, so Steve felt he could make his approach due to that. I didn't trust him, so when he asked me to hustle for him, I told him no. I gave up being a hustler back in the early 2000s when I felt that was my only option to make money. The wild part of this story was that all Steve's dealers were locked up and shipped away to a higher level. As I watched his empire crumble, he too was locked up and transferred to another facility...where he snitched to get shipped back down to a lower level. Goodbye 2025.
The introduction of Paper Crack caused so many traumatic moments. Like when Leon became high, he began sexually playing with himself, and asking his celly if he wanted him to play with him too. Or when Ron thought aliens were trying to kill him, so he ran out into the dayroom screaming for help. You see Paper Crack swept through the facility like COVID-19. One of the most insane incidents was when Elite dove off of the top tier, 12 feet down to a concrete floor. THOOM. He survived, but he was totally messed up.
Incidents unlike anything I seen in my lifetime came into my world: Mass shootings, assassinations, wars with rivaling countries, and riots in our streets. All of it shows how much we can't sit together and discuss our problems openly. I shook my head as the world news continued showing madness.
One of the hardest hits I took was when my twin cousins, Jermaine and Janelle, were diagnosed with cancer. Jermaine died this year...and I miss him so much. He was a father and a son working to become his best self, but cancer took that from him. His sister, Janelle, is fighting to beat cancer, but right now she's in the hospital battling pneumonia. I pray she'll defeat both.
The Pell grant I filled out multiple times continued to hold me back from receiving a college education, which I started in 2024. I worked daily with my family to communicate with individuals who we thought could help, but nothing came from it. I missed an entire semester of college, but I finally did get things cleared up...for the winter semester.
My mother almost perished when she took some medication that tore a hole in her stomach lining, causing internal bleeding. The insane part was that she was almost on a plane for a trip overseas to Milan. If she had kept pushing for it, the doctor told her she would've died before the plane landed. That rocked our entire family.
A gut punch came when my middle sister was arrested for child abuse. She spanked her daughter and the school her daughter attended learned what occurred, but being an 8-year-old child--it went to crap, quick. My nieces were removed from their home, and my sister spent a night in a jail cell. I cried so hard over that news because I couldn't do anything to help. My friends had to console me. They had to hug me until my sister was released and now dealing with a court case, but the judge let her daughters return home, because those who spoke up on her behalf knew my sister wasn't physically abusing her children.
The waves of crazy crashed down when we were on lockdown for a correction officer being attacked by an incarcerated man who only had months remaining on his sentence. A video of COs being attacked at Wallen Ridge State Prison went viral. The madness reached an all-time high when a CO perished...that crushed those, as myself, when we heard what occurred. Violence was going unchecked, and a life ended because of it. I'm still broken by this, because NOBODY deserves to die.
There was an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (October 12, written by Amanda Hernandez, Aging Prison Population A Concern Among States) that discussed the aging population throughout America. This hit home for those around me. I'm mentioning Micky J, Rob, and Ju-Baby by name; each man has spent 40 plus years in prison...and they possibly will die in a cell. Each of these men is dealing with their life as best as they can, but Ju-Baby has terminal cancer.
I met Ju-Baby one day heading for the chow hall and immediately lost it when I discovered that he had been incarcerated for 51 years! How many of you reading this now are even that at that age? I don't know how any of my peers will react if Ju-Baby doesn't make it through 2026.
Life in prison has been a gut punch. I succumbed to this misery at times by just crying. I'm tired of the luggage I carried through this year, especially as it's on the eve of December 31st. Why? This is my 27th year of celebrating my birthday on the last day of the year.
Right now, I'm up at 3:23 AM, celebrating my 49th birthday. You know, I lied to you about this story being about the negative aspects of 2025. I lived through it all, and what I see now is that I did cry, I did lean on others for help, and I also know that no matter what, life is a struggle we can all get through. So, I'll leave you with this: 2026 is a blank canvas that we can paint with love, joy, and above all, hope that things will get better.
Hello 2026, I decree that I will be a better version of myself, and those who are in need, I will stand with them, and pray for those from afar that I'm unable to be with. Make us see that we can make this new year what we want, because anything is possible. Lastly, 2026 can end great. So let's have a Happy New Year.