How to Make It On the Street

Preparation for leaving the penitentiary began with my arrival. I had a one and one-half to three-year state sentence. I was on federal parole when I was sentenced to that charge, so I also owed the federal government five more years. My concern was not how to live in prison. It was knowing that sometime in the next one to seven years, I was going to be released, and it was painfully clear that I did not know how to live on the street. I did not know what was wrong with me, although I had been labeled by different authorities as a sociopath, a psychopath, and a manic depressive drug addict. I had hidden my alcoholism behind some very high drama.