The Train Story

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My Turning Point. A Day Of Bloody Riots and the Warden's Request for a Train Drawing Showing Men Going From Bad to Good 

I drew “The Train" drawing in the year of 2011 for the Warden, a no-nonsense guy at one of Georgia's prisons that I was housed in after a bloody night of rioting in dorms across the compound. Numerous inmates had gotten stabbed and beaten up bad. A few days later, the Warden along with numerous huge Cert Team officers dressed in all black with long black thick clubs hanging on their sides, asked me to draw him a picture of a train showing men going from bad to good on a piece of 8x11 paper after he caught me violating prison room inspection policy.

A  few years prior in 2008 I learned how to draw in a prison Art class I mistakenly joined during my 15th year in prison and kept all my drawings under my bed during inspections. I previously won 1st Place in two prison art shows. I knew it was illegal, but I had nowhere else to keep them. The wardens never looked under beds during inspections, but it was my lucky day.

During dorm room inspections we inmates stand outside our room doors while prison officials walk by and observe you before entering and checking your room locker box, bed, and cleanliness for violations. A violation on a bad day could get you a DR (Discipline Report) or an immediate lockdown in isolation for 30 to 60 days until your DR court hearing where you go in front of the Judge (Captain, Lieutenant, or sergeant) to plead your case. I had more than 50 DR's in my prison file. This was a bad day.

After retrieving and observing my drawings and other materials from under my bed, the Warden called for the owner of these illegal items inside the room. My roommate, a DR habitual offender standing across from me on the other side of our room door looked at me with a stare. I walked inside the room and locked eyes with the warden as he leaned on my roommate top bed bunk next to my pile of nearly illegal 600 drawings, 17 personal handwritten books, boxes of color pencils and stacks of paper, 20 Ramen noodles soups, 10 honey Buns, and multiple boxes of Nutty bars, all found under my bottom bunk bed by the Warden. He asked me if these were my materials and if I drew the drawings as he shuffled through them? I confessed. He mentioned how bad the riot was. I nodded my head slowly up and down. Abnormally, he then asked me to draw him a Train on an 8x11 piece of white paper showing men going from bad to good and asked if I could have this Train drawing on his desk by Monday morning before 7:30am inspection? Of course, I said, "sure" to the man who could have commanded the Cert Team goons to shackle and handcuff me for violating room inspection policy. He simply told me to keep up the good work and left. This was a Friday morning and I had 48 hours to get it done. I went into action.

At first, I over- thought it because I drew mostly celebrities or inmates family members for food items from the prison store and did not have a clue how to draw a Train for this man who stood between my incarceration and freedom to the "Free World." (See Train drawing above) I was coming up for my second Parole Hearing after being denied in 2009 by Georgia Parole Board during my 14th year imprisoned. This was my turning point. Before I started drawing, I reflected on my life and thought about how the "Life of Crime" I had lived for so long which landed me in prison for making many bad decisions. I knew this Train drawing and the information on it had to show how I went from bad to good and how others can do the same. What started as a drawing on an 8x11 piece of white paper ended up as this nearly 4- foot vertical and horizontal colorful life-size picture of a drawing I named "The Train.” The prison didn't allow inmates to have paper this size, so I taped numerous 8x11 size typing paper to make it poster size. I hung it on my dorm wall from Sunday evening to Monday morning. Many of my dormmates and building officers walked up to it and observed it closely. I watched it from my room window before falling into a deep sleep. I slept through 9:00pm count. I awoke Monday morning to see several inmates standing gazing at The Train drawing. After I took it down off the dorm wall to get it on the Warden's desk, an inmate who was being released from prison on his way out the dorm doors to the "Free World" said to me, "Hey pop I'm going to do what that drawing shows." I quickly got The Train on the Warden's desk through building officers early that Monday morning. I do not know if he expected it to be this big in size, but it was just what the Warden had in mind, a Train drawing showing men going from bad to good. He sent a message through the Deputy Warden asking me to paint it as murals on two cafeteria walls in the prison, but I was granted Parole less than month later before I could start the project.