My Life at An Early Age

By Elijah White

I am an inmate at CSP Solano State Prison, Level II.  I am doing a 26-year-to-life sentence for the three-strike law.  Without this law, I would only have received 3 years in prison.  I started this term at the age of 45 and I am now 59 with a release date of May 28, 2025.

I started crime at a young age after my father passed away when I was 6 years of age.  My mother was a God-fearing lady whom would never even think to do wrong.  After about four years, she remarried to a man who took care of the family financially, but was not very good in expressing his love for the kids in the family.

However, the bad things I did growing up are the choices that I made, and they were not because of the way my mother and stepfather raised me.  My mother used to tell me all the time that the bed you make in life, only you will lie in it.  Those bad choices led me here to a life sentence for my past crimes.  Without those past violent crimes that I committed, I wouldn’t have all this time to serve.

I’ve now come to learn and really feel that I understand what it was that my mother meant when she spoke about “making my bed.”  It is the fact that my burden would not just affect me, but it would also affect my wife and child because they are also carrying this burden along with me.  They are doing the time as well.

My mother raised me to be very respectful and to be a productive member in society.  Instead, I chose friends from the “street”; at least, I thought they were friends.  A friend in street life is only a person who wants you to contribute to the wrongs that they do, such as help rob or contribute to getting drugs.  Friends like those of that nature would cast you out as an outsider ‘like a square.’  They won’t respect you unless you do the wrong that they like to do.  You will find very few friends that will respect you when choosing not to do as they do, but most will not.

My point is to really think clearly about just how you want to live your life in society.  One day you will have kids of your own.  How would you like for them to remember you?  You have to lay down the foundation for the future of your kids to come and be willing to make better choices than the choices you made in the past for yourself coming out of a bad environment.  We all have a past and a future to deal with.  We can rely on ourselves or seek help from our loved ones and the grace of God.

By the grace of God, I changed my life for the good.  I can’t see myself living any other way now, or bringing harm to anyone.  I knew these things before, but I chose not to apply them.  Now, this is the only way I can live, which is the right way.

I leave you with the hope and belief that God Almighty can keep you safe always and guide you through what we think are hard times.  Nothing is always worth nothing, but good things are always worth something; however, it is not always easy.

Sincerely,

Elijah White