On Jail

When David Lawrence went to jail for a two year federal bid he was a popular Insurance businessman on Wall Street. He was in with the top executives and was known for his hobbies--professional boxing, rap music and tournament tennis. He was seen dining at all the best restaurants and traveled by the Concord Jet over to London. He came from a successful family and never imagined that he would become a prisoner. Still he took up boxing and had knocked a guy out on national television and knew that he could fight. He traveled with both billionaires and street guys. He operated well in either the upper class or boxing worlds. He was a Ph. D. in literature and was as sensitive as he was tough. He had acted in a movie about his boxing career, Boxer Rebellion, and had been featured in People Mag., New York Mag. and Time Out. Not to mention newspapers like the NY Times, the Post and the Wall Street Journal. He was well-publicized and famous for being different. People said hello to him for no reason. They thought they recognized him. He was a poet and had published books of poetry. He was in hundreds of magazines. He had a Ph. D. in literature. He road to work in a chauffeured Rolls Royce. He didn't seem the type for jail but he adjusted well to it and enjoyed being there. He went with the flow. All the prisoners knew him from his boxing and rapping and he was popular. His first rap album was "The Renegade Jew." He felt that he was a pariah in the business world but a star in jail. He liked being there. His time was his own. He didn't have to sell insurance. He felt that he was a fighter and a writer, not a businessman. There is a strange star system in jail where publicity is even more recognized than in the outside world. David adjusted well to the jail world. It was when he came out that things were difficult. He didn't know what he wanted to do or what he could do with a record. But he didn't really care because he fell back on boxing and became a coach at Gleason's Gym at one thousandth of his former income. Money was no longer a value to him. He just wanted to live his life. He felt that going to jail was a large part of his growing up. He was glad he had gone. It was just a minimum security jail but he was glad that the experience had become part of his growth. He was sad that he was torn away from his wife and his son but he felt that he needed a bit of isolation to grow up. He learned to love his family more and not be so solipsistic. He developed a real sense of values. This book was originally published in Prison Foundations.