I was sentenced to 10 months in 1998. I was released in 1999, went to college, got a Master's, and finally, a Doctorate.

When I was originally sentenced, I was sentenced to a "boot-camp" style facility, with the goal of doing 90 days of boot-camp style labor, and walking out of prison a free man with a parole term. Due to some paperwork issues, I was transported to the main prison camp (where the camp's goal was to treat sex offenders), and ended up doing 99% of my time at that camp instead, waiting for a bed to open up. By the time a bed opened up at the boot camp, I had less than three months left to go on my sentence, and chose to stay on the hill instead of the boot camp, and expired out with no probation or parole at the end.

Prison itself is a great sociological experience. There are three tiers of people -- the grunts (who have their own stack ranking system), the intellectuals, and the guards. Communication between any of the three groups is a challenge. Learning to talk to the 'grunts' always came with some intimidation. I ended up getting a job in the law library, helping other inmates type out legal motions and briefs. Fellow inmates would ask for my assistance with their appeals, and guards would ask for my assistance with their union cases. It was an interesting dichotomy, to say the least. You keep your head down, and only form alliances in which trust is the underlying factor. Around my 9th month there, there was a massive race riot in the prison, and I had both an African American guy as well as a Hispanic guy deflect conflict that was coming my way because of those relationships and the assistance that I had rendered in the library.

Upon my release, I went head-first into getting an education. I applied, and was accepted to MIT and RIT when I took the ACT and scored high on it, only to have my acceptances removed once they performed my background check. Two smaller religious colleges did accept me, regardless of my background, and I ended up focusing on engineering.

I graduated in 2003. I couldn't find a job until 2006, surviving on working small jobs for retailers (merchandising), and eventually going back to school for an MBA, graduating with my Doctorate in 2007.

Two things to realize:

1.) After each days passes and you stay out of prison, your chances of going back fall. 90% of recidivism occurs after the first year.

2.) After seven years, they can no longer report any criminal activities if you are doing a FDCPA based background check. That information will be there, but they're not allowed to use that information (in the state of California, at least). Banks and others use a SEC of FBI based background check, and those will always show.

I ended up getting a pardon in 2009. It cost me about $100,000 and was shady as all hell, and then took me another 18 months to clean up from the various background check providers, but, now my background is clean, and I have worked for big companies and startups alike.

Prison isn't the problem, it is the lack of opportunities that exist after prison that's the problem. Housing options are closed for you once you're released because of your record -- nonviolent or violent. Employment opportunities dry up. Educational opportunities no longer exist, or the funding isn't there due to your conviction. If you don't hustle every day, a felony record is the equivalent to a civil death sentence -- you have doors that close up and things that cannot be fixed until you either die, get it expunged, or have it no longer work for you.