Building a Better Life out of Prison with Michael Santos Transformative Principal 068

I had the great opportunity to interview Michael Santos this week. He is a former convict who spent 26 years in prison for running drugs. He says he never touched the drugs, but organized other people to do it. Pretty amazing story.

Michael has a podcast out, now as well. He pipes it into the prison system to help people learn to change.
You can learn a little bit more about Michael here:
• PBS NewsHour (7-minute profile)
• NBC Bay Area Proud (5-minute profile)
• San Francisco Chronicle (Front-page profile)

We talk about the following:

How Michael became incarcerated. How he had a change of heart. Philosophy and Socrates. Tweet: I needed a string to lead me out of the labyrinth. via @MichaelGSantos @TrnFrmPrincipal http://ctt.ec/B0z64+ Our system of corrections is designed to extinguish hope. Michael’s 3 pronged plan: Educate myself Contribute to Society Build a Support Network Tweet: Every human being has the potential to become something amazing.
Students may see you and tune out the message because you are an authority figure. Tweet: People thought they were insulting me by saying I wasn’t hard enough. Using the socratic method. Define the values students need. Tweet: If they can define success, we can ask what we do to get you there. There’s a path to a better life and it doesn’t happen by accident. Click to Tweet Establishing values vs. defining values Straight A Guide: Attitude, Aspiration, Action, Accountability, Awareness, Achievement, Appreciation When people feel like they have no control, they are less likely to become the best they can be. The Scandinavian system provides a panel to help acclimate the offender to society after a prison sentence. We need an innovative disruptive approach to change things. People want a better life, but don’t know how to get there.