Lessons from my Weekend in Prison
I was lucky enough to spend the weekend with some Uber teammates at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, CA. We spent 2 full days in the maximum security prison, working with 150+ incarcerated individuals on entrepreneurship skills, vulnerability, dancing and just having fun. I’m still processing the intensity of the experience and adjusting back to non-prison life, but I wanted to share a few of my key learnings with you.
- We all have families — Whether you’ve been in prison for 30+ years or you run your own company in SF, we all have families somewhere. The program students (who we called Mavericks) loved their families deeply and had a difficult time processing the impact of their time in prison on their loved ones. We should all remember that our time with our families is not infinite, and even when we get very busy, never forget to text your mom or parents or loved ones to just say hello.
2) We all crave forward progress — One commonality across humans is that we like to set goals and make forward progress. While in Tech we often think about Perf reviews and OKRs and other life goals, for the Mavericks, their goals might be to finish their GED or to be moved to a different (less restrictive) yard within Pelican Bay. For many Mavericks (who might have a life sentence without parole), even making an attempt at these activities and giving themselves a chance to move forward — was tremendous progress. We should all remember that while our goals might be different depending on our age and situation in life — We are all worthy of moving forward and making progress.
3) We all need a hug sometimes — The Mavericks looked tough. There were tattoos and strong muscles. Many of the Mavericks have limited human contact with outside individuals while in prison. The greatest experience for me was getting to know a very fierce Maverick, named Angel, who at first didn’t want to look me in the eye. Our program brings in dancing and happy music and light. I was able to hold Angel’s hand, listen to his story, and tell him that he can move forward. And by the end of the day — Angel started participating in more of the group activities — and he kept smiling. Just remember that no matter who we are, we all need a hug sometimes.
