Dear Shaun,
You may remember coming to speak at Bishop’s Stortford College earlier this year. Our pupils rated your talk as the best one they had received all year!! I would very much like to invite you to give the same talk again next year. Would you be able to manage Thursday, Jan 28 or Thursday, Jan 21 at 2.15?
Many thanks,
Best wishes,
Chris Woodhouse
The email raised my confidence. Since then, and with feedback from helpful teachers, my talks have gone from strength to strength. I’ve been doing over 100 talks per year, sharing my story with tens of thousands of students. The furthest I’ve been so far is Germany. The Ministry of Defence flew me to a military school, Prince Rupert, in Rinteln. But I’m still unable to speak to schools in the US – unless I get a presidential pardon. So, if you know Obama, please put a good word in for me.
Having a passion for writing and speaking, I feel blessed to be doing this work. The constant feedback from students, teachers and even students’ parents motivates me to keep sharing my story and makes me realise that I was meant to go through everything to put me on this path. The talks feel like a better way of repaying my debt to society than the sentence. Almost daily, I get emails from students. This one put a big smile on my face one morning when I was stuffing cheese on toast into my gob:
Dear Shaun,
You came to speak at my school a while ago now and I have been meaning to thank you ever since. People come into schools and speak about drugs, sex and danger on a regular basis, yet the most these presentations amount to are jokes dotted throughout the week about how people do all of the above anyway before the talk is completely forgotten. Your account of your time in prison was the first that I’d seen to really and truly touch every person in that room. You didn’t tell us to never look at drugs, to report anyone who had the slightest knowledge of narcotics or to stick to every guideline we’ve ever been given. As a teenager I can well and truly say that this wouldn’t have and continues not to have any effect whatsoever on the well-being or common sense of my classmates.
The way you delivered your speech inspired me. The facts were clear, but the humour was prominent, keeping us all on the edge of our seats. You taught me that after a high there often comes a low, and however hard and rock-bottom that low may feel, determination and perseverance can always amend things in the end. I learnt about the hardships in jail and what happens if you come head-to-head with the law; but on top of that there are so many more things that will always stay with me from your talk: the importance of family, the dissolution of dreams that may well result in something better and, yes, how to get my priorities straight. I’m sure you receive countless emails daily remarking on what an awe-inspiring man you are and what a change you make – but I felt that it would only be fair to give back even the tiniest bit of what you gave to me in a talk over a year ago.
Thank you so much,
Keep inspiring,
Grace Beverley,
Francis Holland School, London
Moving near to London enabled me to meet my literary agent, Robert Kirby, whose relationship with Bill Campbell at Mainstream Publishing resulted in the publication of all three books in the ‘English Shaun’ trilogy. Without their help, Two Tonys’ horse never would have come in. With the trilogy complete, I aim to publish Two Tonys’ life story next. Two Tonys and his Positive Mental Attitude also feature in a chapter of a self-help book that I’ve nearly finished about the ten most important lessons I’ve learned in my life. Lessons from a Drug Lord is due to be published in March 2014. My publisher chose the title to provoke controversy.
Although I’m still a workaholic, Dr Owen’s advice is never far from my mind. I often think about how lucky I was to have met him. I wish I knew how to get in touch with him to thank him for the profound effect he’s had on my life. (Dr Owen, if you ever read this book, please email me at [email protected].) He was right about incarceration giving me skills to deal with awkward situations. Being forced to live with the Buds and Kens of this world strengthened my mind and crushed the anxiety from me. From time to time, I still hear the wolves howling for me to come out and party. When I hear an old-school rave tune, I get a jolt of excitement that runs up my spine. But the howl of the wolves is nowhere near as enticing. I have mental discipline, thanks to incarceration and Dr Owen. Now, I channel my energy into positive addictions.
I live with my friend, DJ Mike Hotwheelz, a former Ecstasy supplier of mine, as featured in Party Time, who served federal time and was deported. Three times a week we jump around to thumping dance music in a mirrored room with 60 sweaty women – but not at a rave, at an aerobics class called BodyCombat taught by my friends TJ, Tony Coker, Jon Hawkins and Steve Hope. We’ve both realised the error of our ways and become fitness fanatics. I don’t even drink alcohol. Our friends at the sports centre find it hard to believe Hotwheelz’s stories about us, such as the time he played at one of my raves and afterwards in his Scottsdale villa he opened the refrigerator and found an Uzi submachine gun.
Iron Man insisted I continue martial arts, so I joined the Guildford Seiki-Juku Karate Club run by Sensei Brian Shrubb and I’m training for a black belt.
I consider myself lucky to have emerged from incarceration relatively unscathed. Although I often have nightmares, I wake up with a smile on my face – I’m free and in the West, where we have it so good – unlike the people of Chad and Somalia, as mentioned in Two Tonys’ Positive Mental Attitude. When I see someone on the verge of a heart attack over something so insignificant as being stuck in traffic, I automatically think, That wouldn’t even register if they’d survived a life-and-death environment.
Jon’s Jail Journal is going strong and my prison friends’ voices are still being heard. If you want to read the latest from them, just google Jon’s Jail Journal and their stories will come up.
In September 2012, I found out that Raw TV in association with National Geographic Channel were going to broadcast my story worldwide as an episode of Locked-Up Abroad/Banged-Up Abroad called ‘Raving Arizona’.
It was a guard at the maximum-security Madison Street jail who motivated me to start blogging when he told me, ‘The world has no idea what really goes on in here.’
To him, I’d like to say, ‘That’s no longer the case.’
The following is an excerpt from a letter I sent to Jack on 27 April 2013:
The Locked-Up Abroad episode premiered three days ago in the US to almost ten million viewers at 2 a.m. UK time. I awoke to 500 emails/messages from Americans outraged at Arpaio, the jail conditions and human-rights violations. People showed strong support for my family and activism. Since then, the emails/messages have risen to over 1,000 and Jon’s Jail Journal’s hits have surged by 20,000. All of my social media pages have been flooded. On Thursday, I couldn’t blink without an email coming in. Many people expressed their own pain and suffering, detailing horrific things that happened at the hands of the US justice system. Here are three examples:
Shaun, thank you for all you have done! My brother, Lawrence Edward McCarty, was in the same jail years ago … mainly for little things like DUI [drink-driving]. Each time, he was beaten up, robbed of his things … when he was released, he was found dead a few days later in Arizona on his way home to California to be with his family. It’s too late for my brother, but you are helping so many other families and prisoners … Joe Apaio needs to be recalled!!
Good luck to you and, again, thank you for all of your selfless efforts to bring about change.
Much love and light,
Stacie
Dear Shaun,
I just watched your story on 4/23/13, great story and love to read the rest of the books you wrote. Love to hear back from you, you are a special kind of man to have love like that, your friend Peggy Larkin-Patton, hope one day we meet. A little about me: I have four brothers that did time. My older brother’s name is James T. Larkin, the cops killed him, they said he hung [sic] himself with a
pair of blue jeans that was brand new, it happen at the 26th police district in Philadelphia PA, a friend of his was in the jail when they brought him in, he was lifeless, nothing was done to the cop that killed him, that was in 1976. My other brother, Michael Kevin Larkin, hung [sic] himself in Great Ford prison in Penn.
Feeling a little down, talk later …
Shaun, I don’t know if you can help me, but I just saw your show and it’s weird cause Friday morning I’m going to a mistrial hearing for my son in Detroit, he was shot by police after trying to commit suicide and jumping out his window; I was on the phone with him and walking toward where he was when a policeman came around the corner and shot him, two months after getting off at the hospital. He was arrested and put in jail for two months; he’s been on a tether ever since. It’s been a year and a half. He was charged with arson and six counts of resisting arrest resulting in injury because the police bullet casings headed each other in the face; they had fired 18 shots at my son, close range. I’m living in the nightmare. There was no evidence, yet he was found guilty about charges which go up to 20 years in prison. I would greatly appreciate if you could contact me and we could talk … You’re the only person I’ve reached out to. I am scared to contact the local media for fear of retribution. I am begging you to hear my plea, I apologise for some of the messed up language, Patty
I realise that everything I’ve been doing around Jon’s Jail Journal for the past ten years has led up to this moment. It’s as if the trauma on US society caused by injustice, corruption and state-sanctioned violence opened up to me. I’m responding to every message, trying to give back some of my own positive energy. Adrenalin keeps me going through the nights. At some points, I was typing so fast and was so focused I went hours before I noticed my shoulders had frozen. I had to stop to stretch for a few minutes to shake the numbness off. Thanks to social media, I was able to alert thousands of people to a petition to recall Arpaio. Even some Arpaio supporters emailed that the episode had changed their minds about him. I’ve only received four death threats from Arpaio loyalists, which isn’t bad out of over 1,000 messages, almost universal support. I had no idea which parts of the episode the director, Harry Hewland, had selected. I’m thankful to him for including the activism. His decision to flash Jon’s Jail Journal on the screen contributed to the deluge of correspondence. When Hard Time was published in America at the same time Osama bin Laden was killed, I lost my news coverage, the book didn’t sell and I felt the realisation of the dream of exposing Arpaio slipping away. None of that matters now.
The activism doesn’t stop here. Arpaio is still in power and there’s work to be done. The episode has planted a seed in the US conscience that evil things are going on in his jail system. The episode posted a statistic on the screen: 62 inmates died in Arpaio’s jails from 2003 to 2007. Arpaio is motivated by power and money. Look where he gets his political contributions: the prison industries. His jail is a conveyor belt feeding the prison system human beings reduced to commodities. Most of them are non-violent drug offenders. Many are mentally ill. Vulnerable people who get no education or rehabilitation because the prison wants them to come right back to keep the money rolling in. As shown in the emails, this corrupt system is traumatising American society to its core. With 1 in 100 adults in prison, every family in America has or knows someone in prison, unless of course they’re politically connected or wealthy enough to bribe the system. The mission to expose Arpaio continues. Over the next six months, the episode is being televised to over 50 million viewers in 36 countries, ranging from India to all of Europe. I’ve finally realised the dream I set ten years ago when I first picked up that golf pencil in the maximum-security Madison Street jail, hoping to show the world what really goes on in there.
Bye for now, Jack.
Take care in there,
Shaun
Concentrating on finishing this epilogue has taken my mind off how sad I felt when I began it and memories of Two Tonys were flooding my brain. Looking at the wicker-framed mirror now, I don’t see any tears in my eyes. In fact, they’re sparkling. Above the mirror is a tiny picture on the wall that I failed to notice six years ago that lifts my spirits even further: an orange sunset, a dark-blue ocean, the silhouette of a bird gliding carefully over massive waves.
With Mum and Dad, Visitation, Tucson prison, Arizona, 2006.
Jade, 2011.
Two Tonys, Tucson prison, 2007.
Two Tonys back in his Mafia days.
T-Bone, Tucson prison, 2007.
T-Bone with his grandchild, during his brief period of freedom, 2012.
Scorpion. (The jumpsuit yoga reconstruction pictures were photographed by Libi Pedder in 2013).
Crow.
Headstand Lotus.
Balance.
Wearing Jade’s pink lipstick in London, 2008.
Celebrating Dad’s 65th birthday, 2013.
Continuing martial arts as recommended by Iron Man. With my karate buddies from the Guildford Seiki-Juku Karate Club, 2013.
Getting punched in the head by a ballerina during filming for a milk commercial, London, 2012. She hits much harder than Ken.
With Simone Thorogood at the YouTube TV studio, London. Doing an interview about the release of Party Time, 2013.
With Mum and Dad outside the London studio used by Raw TV, after filming our interviews for Banged-Up/Locked-Up Abroad Raving Arizona, 2012.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To my readers, especially those who have been kind enough to provide guidance and feedback. Thanks for continuing to read my books and for the hundreds of great reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.
Other help: Derick Attwood, Barbara Attwood, Karen Attwood, Shannon Clark, Sue Obaza, and Amber and Barry Holwegner;
Harry Hewland, for directing Banged-Up Abroad/Locked-Up Abroad ‘Raving Arizona’;
Neal Craig, for the superb acting as my character in Banged-Up Abroad/Locked-Up Abroad ‘Raving Arizona’;
Clayton Littlewood, for the jacket quote;
Robert Kirby at United Agents, Bill Campbell and the staff at Mainstream Publishing, including Claire Rose, Francesca Dymond and Graeme Blaikie, for making the ‘English Shaun’ trilogy possible;
Tony McLellan and Emma Cole of the McLellan Practice, for talks to schools;
Anne Mini, for writing a brilliant introduction to Hard Time (US version) and for maintaining the blog Author!Author!, which details everything a would-be writer needs to know to get published;
Tony Papa (15 to Life), for writing a foreword to Hard Time (US version) and the staff at Skyhorse Publishing;
Andrew Donegan and Stephanie Senn, for artwork;
Heather McQuaid and Sarah Clark, for brochure design;
Stephanie Senn and Jörg, for IT help;
Libi Pedder, Jackney Middleton and Paul Kershaw for photography;
The Fords Sports & Social Club (Widnes) and the Boileroom pub (Guildford), for hosting the Party Time book launches and to everyone who attended;
Koestler Trust staff: Tim Robertson, Sarah Mathéve, Ben Monks, Vikki Elliot, Joyti Waswani;
Prisoners Abroad staff: Pauline Crowe, Zainab Amer, Elga Batala, Caroline Beckman, Jo Bedingfield, Lorraine Cole, Theo Cresser, Jessica D’Cruz, Ola Fadojutimi, Theresa Gilson, Paul Keenlyside, Iris Lee, Elena Gonzalez-Conde Linares, Gayle Lyes, Laura Martin, Yann Paulain, Matthew Pinches, Kate Willmott, Amy White, Jessica Ritchie;
For help and support at book signings: Waterstones staff – Emily Brooks, Lydia Nicole Rainford, Charlotte Mount, ‘Wild’ John Wild, Natalie Mitchell, Iain Sambrook, Sue Fox, Noshaba Malik, Josephine and Simon Toms, Sadie Jones and Holly Parrish;
For media: Eamonn Holmes (Sky News), Tony Jones (Nine News, Melbourne), Gillian Joseph (Sky News), Felicity Hannah (Yahoo!), Chris Summers (BBC and the true-crime website totalcrime.co.uk), Susanna Reid (BBC), Jon Ronson (BBC Radio 4/The Men Who Stare at Goats), David Hepworth (Mixmag/The Word), Dominic Herbert (Sunday Mirror), Martin Stanford (Sky News), Jeremy Vine (BBC Radio 2
), Eddie Mair (BBC Radio 4), Catherine Whyte (Sheengate Publishing), Erwin James (Guardian/A Life Inside), Quinn Norton (Irish Times), Tony Snell (BBC Radio Merseyside), Greg Mocker (CBS Channel 5), Marnie Wilson and Rebecca Younger (Surrey Advertiser), Wesley Johnson (Press Association), Andrew Thorp and Sara Knowles (MojoLife TV), Donna Birrell (BBC Radio Cornwall), Mark Carter (BBC Radio Surrey), Nick Wallis (BBC Radio Surrey), Matt Graveling (BBC Radio Surrey), Justin Dealey (BBC Three Counties Radio), Joe Talbot (BBC Radio Surrey), Stephen Lemons (Phoenix New Times), Adam Boulton (Sky News), Mike Peake (FHM), Chris Vallance (BBC Radio 5), Maurice Boland (Talk Radio Europe), Paddy Shennan (Liverpool Echo), Paul Taylor (Manchester Evening News), Maryam Omidi (Dow Jones), Will Batchelor and Duncan Barkes (City Talk 105.9), Todd Landfried, Linda Bentley, Josi Standbrook and Lydia Stockbridge (Kane FM), Hugh Stoddart (editor, Not Shut Up), Claire Richmond (findatvexpert.com), Tom Tilley (ABC Australia), Vice magazine, Big Issue, Michael Safoschnik of the NYPD;
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