Summary: Part 3: The Master Plan

In “Giving Water,” Chris Wilson decided he was ready to “stop falling and take control” of his life. He began working on his GED, and because he struggled at first, he started to get tutoring from another inmate—Steve Edwards. He worked for hours with Steve, doing math problems and studying flash cards, training like the film character Rocky for a big boxing match. He took the GED and passed.

“What’s your endgame?” is the question Wilson asks people when he’s trying to help improve their lives because it was the question he asked himself as he began to take control over his life. He wanted to have a legacy to be proud of. In prison, he was often identified by a number or by his sentence, life. He realized he wanted to be more than a number or a prison term. He had to set some goals. So, he took three days to think over his endgame. He first listed what he dreamed of, like traveling and owning a Corvette. But then he made an even more essential list: things he needed to do now and in the near future to get to those dreams. He took his handwritten list and typed it up and titled it “My Master Plan.” He sent copies to the judge who sentenced him and to his grandma. He taped the last copy by his bed.

In “Workout,” Wilson began a new workout regimen—one of the items on his list. He showered, shaved, trimmed his goatee, and brushed his teeth.

In “Book Crusher,” Wilson begins by describing the organization of the youth program. There were four levels, each with its own tier of the prison, and each time a person moved up a tier they got more privileges. Wilson was following his Master Plan—not drinking or getting high, eating healthy, and reading books from the library that would help him achieve his goals. Meanwhile, he began to figure out the way things worked in the prison. He helped start a book club called Book Crushers, which met to discuss what members were reading.

In “Positive Delusions,” a new kid on Wilson’s tier got attacked and burned with hot oil, and Wilson was upset by it. Then, he remembered reading about the Vietcong prison where John McCain was kept as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. One man in the prison, according to the book, would always say, “We’ll be home for Christmas,” and the others thought he was crazy, but they started to believe it, too. Wilson decided to give himself a goal to believe in, too. He collects pictures of what he wishes he could have, calling them “Positive Delusions.” They give him the strength to keep on with his Master Plan.

In the next chapter, “Tooky,” Wilson describes how he met Tooky in carpentry class. Some of the people in the class were quite accomplished. It was a coed class, and Wilson notes that even though it was against the rules, people did have sex, right there in the class. Wilson didn’t give into temptation. And one day, he met Tooky, an older man who also had a life sentence. Tooky was an excellent woodworker, and he was quiet and patient. The two became friends.

Wilson then updated his Master Plan and sent letters to his lawyer and his grandma.

In “Tier Three,” Wilson was promoted to the third tier, which came with additional privileges. Another inmate, Greg, was on this tier, and he had a thriving business selling marijuana. Despite Greg’s success, Wilson sees Steve Edwards as more of a role model. He and Steve got to be friends, and Wilson learned that Steve was studying computer coding and that he had family on the outside who helped him. He had books and magazines, extra food, and a TV. After a while, Steve is willing to lend some of his reading material to Wilson, and hours of conversation further deepen their friendship. Wilson learned a lot from Steve, and he was learning other things, too, like Italian. He also earned his carpentry certificate.

In “Steve’s Story,” Wilson learns that Steve grew up in a very conservative Christian tradition and that his family left after they realized it was a cult. Steve had to switch schools and got bullied. He ended up getting beaten up so badly at the age of 14 that he had to be airlifted to the hospital. Steve had clearly sustained a brain injury, and his behavior and moods following the beating were erratic. He ended up killing someone and was tried for murder as an adult. He was sentenced to life plus 20 years. By the time he was 19, he’d been in prison for three years. But he had faith that God had not abandoned him. He had hope.

In “Mentor,” Wilson mulls over Steve’s advice that he should do something good for the inmates instead of just thinking of himself. At the same time, he was in therapy, dealing with his childhood trauma. He realized he had to take responsibility for what he’d done, even while acknowledging the traumas that had contributed to his behavior. His therapist, Mr. Mee, asked him to become a mentor to other inmates, helping them make Master Plans of their own. But Tooky was a mentor, and Wilson didn’t feel he was up to the task. He took a different job. But he ended up being a mentor of sorts, helping other inmates identify their passions and start working on their GEDs. Meanwhile, Greg’s marijuana business was discovered, and Greg was deported. Wilson realized many people, like Greg, didn’t think about the long term. But Wilson knew you have to build a plan from the end, identifying the goal and then having a plan to get there.

In “IAC,” Wilson joined the Inmate Advisory Council, a group that advocated for inmates. Steve was also on the council. Working together, they managed to make positive changes for the prisoners. One of these was to have a separate council for the younger inmates, called the Youth Planning Committee. Another was to build a nicer pool table. Wilson began to really take pride in his accomplishments and learned to appreciate a job well done.

In “Progress,” Steve began a college degree program in Patuxent. Wilson applied for it and got in. In addition, Steve’s sentence was reduced, and Wilson felt hopeful he could follow his example. He reached out to his judge, lawyer, and grandma, but he didn’t hear back. In the next chapter, “Family,” Wilson met Steve’s parents, who treated him nonjudgmentally. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards visited him regularly after that, and he came to love them. Wilson updated his Master Plan to add that he wanted to start a business that “makes people’s lives better.”

In “Showstack,” Wilson got two unexpected visits. One was from Erick Wright, who had once been Wilson’s sister’s boyfriend. Erick came to see him in prison; it turned out he knew Steve. The second visit was from Keith Showstack, a new lawyer who was taking Wilson’s case. Wilson shared all of his accomplishments and his Master Plan with his new lawyer. Showstack told him the only option was a reduction of sentence hearing, and it was a long shot. He also told Wilson to be patient.

“Business” describes Wilson’s entrepreneurial efforts in Patuxent. One business he started was a photography business—taking and selling photos of inmates with their families to boost morale (and make a profit). He had to write a business proposal to get money to buy the camera, and the prison administration agreed. The business was astoundingly successful.

In “Ethics,” Wilson learned more about civil rights history and systemic racism in government policies and institutions. He realized that poverty in Black communities wasn’t only due to individuals who made bad choices; it was planned and intentional. “Society created the cave,” he explains. He learned about Frederick Douglass, too, and took inspiration from him and then realized that he was also that kind of inspiration for others. Other inmates were getting their GEDs and thinking about the future because of his example.

Meanwhile, his photo business was booming, and because it offered him more access to the whole prison, he began to see that most of the inmates were Black. This reinforced what he was learning in his ethics class.

In “The Rosetta Stone,” Wilson and Steve continued to make progress on their different ventures. Steve started teaching computer coding classes and improved the prison’s computer system with his own code. Wilson was reading tons of books and learning Spanish from books and Rosetta Stone software. He even started a Spanish study group to help others learn the language. Keith Showstack visited and told him he was going to again ask Judge Wood—the judge on Wilson’s case—for the sentence reduction hearing; since the judge was retiring, he might be willing to grant it. Wilson updated his Master Plan.

In “Perseverance,” Wilson learned that the prison administration had spent the money he’d been saving for the youth program—from his business profits—on new security cameras. He was angry, but Steve reminded him not to act out of his anger. He decided to lower the cost of the photos, but the prison administration wouldn’t have it; they liked the extra money. Then Keith Showstack visited with news that Judge Wood retired without granting his hearing but that the new judge might. They applied for the hearing again and again were rejected.

In “Victims,” Wilson begins by reminding the readers that despite all of the good that was happening, prison was a truly terrible, violent place. He describes beatings, revenge beatings for those beatings, and revenge beatings for the revenge beatings. “The victim becomes the victimizer,” he notes, just like had happened to him and to Steve. Furthermore, if anyone tried to stop the cycle of violence, they were drawn into it, so trying to intervene when someone was bent on beating another inmate was not only useless but dangerous.

In “Opportunity,” Wilson convinced Mr. Mee, his therapist, to change how the group therapy sessions were organized so people who were serious about self-improvement would be grouped together. Keith Showstack planned to apply again for a sentence reduction hearing.

In “Remorse,” Wilson describes a program called “Victim Impact.” This program brought in victims of crime to tell how the crime impacted their lives. One time, a Black woman shared how her daughter was raped and murdered, and Wilson was shaken by her story. He felt that the men who did that were monsters. After the woman left, the other inmates talked and joked about her and her dead daughter, and Wilson realized that maybe they—and even he—might have a little of the monster inside. He realized he wasn’t a monster, but he’d done a monstrous thing. Even though he’d been attacked, he shared blame for the death he helped cause. After this realization, Wilson had done some research on the man he’d killed. Learning about the man’s difficult life—not that different from Wilson’s own—made Wilson feel remorse and commit to becoming better.

In “Tier Four,” Wilson and Steve got to create their own tier because lifers weren’t allowed to go to tier four. They even chose the inmates who would share it with them—people who had done terrible things but had also found their remorse. The new tier was more peaceful than the old one, and Wilson was able to finish his associate’s degree from the community college. Half a year later, his lawyer told him he’d been granted his hearing with the new judge—Judge Serrette.

In “Darico,” Wilson was invited to his son’s custody hearing, and even though his contact with Darico had been limited, he decided to go. In part, his decision was based on seeing another inmate repair his relationship with his father and how it changed him for the better. At the hearing, Darico hugged him, and the two of them were allowed to talk for a while. The judge gave Wilson a say in where his son would go—into foster care or back with Wilson’s mother. It was a terrible choice to have to make, but after hearing how awful Darico’s life has been in Mona’s house, Wilson chose foster care.

In “One Shot,” the narrative arrives back at the prologue scene. Wilson spoke from the heart about his remorse for his crime and his plan to work every day to make himself a better person and make positive change in the world. In the end, the judge reduces his sentence to 24 years.

That night, Wilson had a new dream, which he recounts in “The Dream.” In the dream, he was at the beach, the sky was blue, and there was a light breeze. Then, he was in a boat, and all the people he’d known were there, having a party. He realized he was really going to get to go home.

Analysis: Part 3: The Master Plan

In this section, Chris Wilson describes the long, hard journey from having nothing but his name (and that only tenuously) to his release from Patuxent. There are two threads to this story: one is Wilson’s internal change, and one is the way he is able to make connections with others. It becomes clear that real rehabilitation takes both. He has to desperately want change, be willing to work for it, and have a firm resolve in sticking to his plan. But he also needs others: mentors, supporters, friends. In his previous life, he didn’t have either. He had little family support, and his peers tended to pull him into bad behaviors and choices, not the opposite. And even though he had the beginnings of a desire to be a good dad for his son, he didn’t have the internal focus and work ethic that could make this desire a reality. So, this section is, in many ways, a coming-of-age story in which the protagonist matures and takes responsibility for his life and also begins to make connections to the wider community.

If the previous sections showed Wilson’s sphere of life becoming smaller and smaller, this section shows how it begins to expand. He begins to hope for the future, forming “Positive Delusions” and his “Master Plan” rather than ruminating only on the hurts of the past. He forms friendships, book clubs, businesses, and more. It’s clear that he’s been locked up emotionally as well as physically, imprisoned by past traumas and continued feelings of abandonment. And slowly, as he inches closer to physical freedom from the walls of the prison, he also inches closer to emotional freedom from his past.