Summary: Part 4: The Middle Passage, Part 2

In “Lucky,” Chris Wilson cautions the reader not to think that since things worked out for him that the system works. He was lucky, he explains, and given a chance that few people get. He notes that taking away any hope for a better future takes away any motivation for people in prison to improve themselves. He credits a list of people and circumstances who helped make his chance happen, noting that if even one detail of his story were different, he’d still be in prison. He believes we need a system that wants to rehabilitate young offenders once they are broken down. To do this, we need to see each person who goes to prison as an opportunity, not as a waste. But there’s a major obstacle: the prison administrators.

In “The System,” Wilson explains that even though he was a great example of how the youth rehabilitation program was supposed to work, the prison administration worked against his release. They did not want a “lifer” to be released, so they changed their own rules so they could deny him the evaluation that could lead to the hearing that could lead to being placed in the halfway house. Even Mr. Mee would not speak up for him. Wilson believes this is because once a person is in the system, they are no longer considered a human being. This idea is embedded in those who run the prisons.

Wilson found out Darico wasn’t his biological son—a fact that the prison administrators had kept secret from him. But he fought for parental rights anyway and got a few hours a month of visitation.

In “The Man in the Cave,” the prison reorganized the inmates, and all of the men on the tier were scattered. Wilson got a cellmate for the first time—and it was Steve. Steve was trying to get a medical appeal, and doctors from Columbia University were in a process of testing to see if he had brain trauma that had contributed to his crime. But the prison authorities had taken Steve’s computers, and he was depressed. He had migraines and nightmares. Wilson thought again about Plato’s allegory and how the man who got out went back to tell the others what he’d seen. He began to see that he could make a difference for those still in prison, both before and after he got out. After all, the other inmates were already asking him how to make a Master Plan. So he decided to make his time with them really count. He expanded his real estate study group, made a book list for others, and started a self-improvement club. He continued to build his foreign language program. He saw that released prisoners didn’t have a plan to make it once they were out, so he helped them make their Master Plans, create resumes, and get the training they could while inside. He asked them, “What’s your endgame?” and once they’d envisioned what they wanted out of the future, he helped them set goals that would get them there.

In “Saying Good-Bye,” Wilson’s release was finally approved, and he had to say goodbye to the people who’d been his family. He said goodbye to Tooky, who had little hope of getting out, and to Steve, whose computers had been returned and whose medical appeal was gaining traction. Then he was on the transport shuttle, his hands free.

 In “Halfway,” Wilson moved into the halfway house. Erick Wright got him a suit, and he got his first restaurant food since being incarcerated. He told his caseworker that he wanted to go to college and start a business. She shook her head at him and told him to lower his standards.

“Grinding Again” continues to describe the tension between Wilson and his caseworker. Wilson begins to attend the University of Baltimore, and he does well. His caseworker then limits the hours he is allowed to study. He still does well. So, she takes away “home visit” passes. He is also targeted for harassment by the COs. His caseworker, it turns out, was also his therapist, and he was required to meet regularly with her. Her consistent message was that as a convict, he’ll never accomplish his dreams. This only made him more determined than ever. He tried not to get baited into any behavior that would send him back to prison. He studied hard. Erick even set up a phone call between Wilson and his mom, and she said she loved him. He couldn’t bring himself to say it back. That night, his mom died of an overdose—suicide.

In “Crying All My Tears,” Wilson’s caseworker told him his mom’s death was his fault and that he was an embarrassment. She also threatened to deny him the chance to go to her funeral but relented at the last minute. The funeral was emotionally difficult, especially because parts of his mom’s suicide note were read aloud. Wilson was struck by the pain and guilt his mom carried. He regrets she didn’t live long enough to know he turned out to be a good son. He was able to work through these emotions with help from the people at Narcotics Anonymous, which he was required to attend. He also talked to his professors, revealing his past for the first time to them, and they were understanding. But then, his caseworker had him suddenly transferred back to Patuxent.

“Revenge” describes what happens after his caseworker has him transferred to the mental health ward at the prison. Wilson studied his coursework from prison, writing a term paper in pencil that he knew he’d never be able to turn in, and pledged to get out and be successful one day. He told his caseworker, when she came to gloat, that his success would be his revenge.

In “Home,” Wilson was transferred to the Eastern Correctional Institute to serve his last 13 months. This prison was much rougher than Patuxent, but he persevered and was finally paroled. He was given freedom, but that was about it. Not knowing what else to do, he walked to the University of Baltimore and went to see the dean. She gave him a hug and said, “Welcome back.”

Analysis: Part 4: The Middle Passage, Part 2

In this section, Chris Wilson reprises the two allusions that he’s used to characterize his experiences. First, he returns to Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave,” as he finds new meaning in it. While he once felt trapped in the cave and has put a great deal of energy into escaping it, now that freedom is in sight, he realizes that in the allegory, the man willingly returns to the cave to try to tell others about the outside. This realization helps him see the silver lining in his remaining time in prison: the man in the cave can help others in the cave.

The other allusion is to the Middle Passage. Like the prior Middle Passage section, this period of Wilson’s life is a transition from one place to another—a journey that removes him once again from his community and those he has come to see as family. And as before again, Wilson describes the ways that the prison system tries to take a person’s name and individuality. He explains how prison administrators stop seeing prisoners as human beings and how all their decisions and behaviors toward the inmates are based on this idea. They refer to people with life sentences as “lifers” rather than by name, for example. But in the end, Wilson perseveres and manages to get the freedom he’d worked toward for 16 years. This Middle Passage, then, is on an opposite trajectory from the first: instead of going from relative freedom to captivity, he goes from captivity to freedom.