Testimonials

“The spirit with which you have sustained yourself and grown as a man matches the approach to the vocation of business that you are preparing for and your desire to enter a truly free market place. Whether you know it or not, you have a profound knowledge of freedom by way of its denial in most your adult life. You and your wife and family will remain in my thoughts and prayers. You have taught me more than you will ever know. Thanks.”

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“Dear Mr. Santos, I just finished reading your biography and your resume. I congratulate you on your college degrees and on your diligence in becoming an upstanding member of society and maintaining a moral code. You appear to be a person of high intelligence. You have created and helped form a number of associations that will be of help to young people who are unaware of the pitfalls of their path. May God bless and keep you and your wife.

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“Hello, The Poetic Justice Project features a 15-member cast of formerly incarcerated writers, artists, musicians and actors to produce bold, original theatre that examines crime, punishment and redemption. Funded by the Williams James Association, National Endowment for the Arts and LEF Foundation, the show will go on the road for a prison town tour in Central Valley of California in August. Performances feature a Q&A session in which the actors engage with the audience on topics of prison life, recidivism, pain and redemption. I am hoping you will be interested and promote the tour on your blog. For more information, please see the website at www.poeticjusticeproject.org. Thanks for your consideration.”

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“Dear Michael and Carole, I stumbled across your site in the course of unrelated research and I wanted – with nothing more pertinent to say – to tell you both what an extraordinary project this is and what an amazing asset and resource for the broader community. I am an Australian lawyer, and my passion is for juvenile justice, so I’m understandably interested and outraged by penal issues. Even so, I commend your clear, compassionate and relatively polemic-free approach – it seems to me that you have found one way of broadening this discussion and moving past the reactionary responses and demonizing that seems typical of any discussion around prisons. Thank you for your ongoing labour and commitment to the website.”

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“Hello Michael: Your credentials and vision are most impressive, as is your website.”

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“Thank you for your efforts in prison reform. My brother is in MDC Brooklyn as we speak. He was originally in Virginia serving 15 months for perjury. He was released to a halfway house 2 months ago. He had earned good time that was going to see him out in April. He had to find a job while in the halfway house. A family member offered him a job that he gladly accepted. Two months into the job he was pulled back to the halfway house because there is a stipulation that says you can’t work for family. They revoked his good time and added time to his sentence because he worked for family. They sent him to a high security prison until they could decide where they were going to send him. He was there for a month. Phone calls from him cost us a fortune because the phone company knows they have you by the short hairs. $600 in the last 2 months for these calls. I know he was in prison for a reason but his punishment certainly isn’t fitting his crime. I am glad someone is doing something about this. I already wrote to President Obama before i discovered your site. Again Thank You.”

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“I would not have been sufficiently inspired to start the Institute for People with Criminal Records had I not found and read your work a while back.”

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“Bless you, I hope you get your freedom.”

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“I loved all the articles. I also think that providing respect and allowing one to maintain as much dignity as humanly possible in a prison has a tremendous effect on an individual’s self esteem. When they have the self esteem, people are more apt to look at things in a more positive way, and become more eager to learn and grow.”

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“Hi Michael! I hope this letter finds you as I am sure you are inundated with fan mail, and letters of support. I want to tell you that your book has touched me personally and that I intend to pass it on to a friend of mine who is serving time in San Diego County jail right now. Thank you so much Michael Santos, you have written one of the most important books of our time.”

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“I am constantly amazed at Michael’s positive outlook and how well he has adjusted to prison. I know how hard it was and probably still is for your family, Michael. But, your success while in prison must bring them some comfort. If I could will it, you would have been out of prison long ago, but our prison system seems to be devoid of logic; there also seems to be no one to reason with.”

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“Hi Mike I just finished your book titled Inside, you did a fresh job. I had a hard time putting it down. What a story. I think the term you are serving is harsh not that u didn’t deserve some time but geez a bit much. Your story is good and I get from the book you’re a good guy who made a bad choice when u were young. I too made bad choices in my youth and paid my own price. But life is good now on my end. There is no doubt in my mind you have a bright future ahead.”

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“hi michael im reading “inside” now on page 97. its good. you’re a good writer.ive never been to jail.im a truck driver so i read a lot of stuff in my down time.gotta get back to reading it.its pretty action packed.”

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