A Big Book on Death Row

In 1981, I was serving in a southern prison, doing the last few weeks of a five-year sentence. I'd been in that prison for nearly five years, and I'd been locked up, except for four months, since 1968. I'd made a decision that something had to change. As I drew near my release date, I was determined to get out and stay out. I was nearly thirty-five, and had been locked up since I was twenty-two. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. All of my seven felony convictions were related to alcohol or drugs. They were all violent. I wasn't a social drinker or a friendly drug user.