The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose

Wilson and Steve represent the youth program on the Inmate Advisory Council. Forging a compromise with Tooky, president of the IAC, they establish a separate Youth Planning Committee to help address issues unique to the youth program. Wilson continues learning Italian, puts his carpentry skills to work in building a ping-pong table, and begins reading W.E.B. DuBois.

Steve succeeds in bringing Patuxent a college degree program in conjunction with Anne Arundel Community College. Noting that there are “a lot of smart inmates at Patuxent,” Wilson is grateful to earn one of the program’s first twenty slots (151). With no formal schooling since eighth grade, he feels unprepared, but he is determined to work hard. Steve has his life-plus-20 sentence reduced to 45 years.

Steve gives Wilson two pairs of socks from a care package. Steve’s parents send Wilson his own care package. At Steve’s insistence, Wilson places Steve’s parents on his visitors’ list. To Wilson’s surprise, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards visit. They ask Wilson about school and the books he is reading. On the first few visits, they sit for an hour with both Steve and Wilson. After several visits, however, they meet once with Wilson alone. They ask Wilson if he needs anything.

This one-page chapter consists of Wilson’s Master Plan, updated for 2001. Twelve items are complete, and Wilson changes “Start my own business” to “Start my own business that makes people’s lives better” (158).

Wilson receives two more unexpected visitors. The first is Erick Wright, his sister’s former boyfriend. Wilson reveals that Erick, the “chill dude who encouraged me to go to night school” years earlier, coincidentally had known Steve for years (159). Erick notices positive changes in Wilson. The second visitor is a young lawyer named Keith Showstack, whom Wilson describes as a “white guy” from working-class South Boston who strikes Wilson as “confident,” possessing the “swagger and charisma of Robert Downey, Jr., but with more gel in his slicked-back hair” (160). Showstack, recently hired at the law firm of Harry Trainor, Wilson’s former lawyer, had read Wilson’s file and now wants to help him. Noting that parole for lifers had become impossible after Governor Glendening’s proclamation in 1995, Showstack raises the possibility of a sentence-reduction hearing, which a judge would have to grant. Showstack promises to work pro bono and encourages Wilson to keep working on his Master Plan.

Wilson successfully proposes an annual family picnic for inmates who make it an entire year without infractions. Wilson and Steve enjoy a picnic with Steve’s Parents and Erick Wright. After attending the picnic and later reading about digital cameras, Wilson develops a business idea and writes a proposal: With the prison administration’s approval and essential start-up funds, Wilson would take family pictures and sell them to inmates. The profits would go into the youth program. The administration agrees, and Wilson’s new photo business blossoms, with a profit of nearly $4,000 in six months.

Wilson takes college courses in ethics and modern American history. He learns about segregation and admits to feeling bitterness but concludes that the most important lesson from his history class is “the fire of Frederick Douglass” (172). Steve helps DD, whom Wilson calls “the hardest dude in the yard,” pass his GED exam (174). After DD’s success, others follow.

Steve’s parents move overseas, but they leave Wilson with a parting gift: a language-learning program called Rosetta Stone. Wilson learns Spanish and organizes a Spanish study group to help other inmates. Wilson says that he is putting Frederick Douglass’s lessons into action: “Study. Read. And rise” (179). Showstack visits, tells Wilson that his judge is planning to retire, and promises to get Wilson’s case on the judge’s final docket.

An expanded Master Plan for 2004 now features three sections: “Daily Goals,” “Prison Goals,” and “Life Goals.” Nearly all goals in the first two sections are either complete or in progress. Among the noteworthy changes, Wilson adds: “Get my sentence modified to twenty years” (182).