The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose

The same dream haunts Wilson every night: he sees himself as an old man sitting in his cell. Before he dies, Big Daddy speaks to Wilson one last time and makes his grandson promise to “be a good man. Get an education. Get a high school diploma. Learn a trade” (70). Wilson promises but does not see the point in doing those things and therefore does not believe in his promise.

Wilson is transferred to Patuxent, a maximum-security prison with both rehabilitation and youth programs. A line of female prisoners, viewed from the transfer bus, gives Wilson the wrong idea about life inside the prison. Wilson faces the humiliation of a cavity search, experiences the stench and heat of the building’s interior, and walks into his cell for the first time. In the dayroom, inmates watch the local news and cheer when crews from their neighborhood carry out a revenge murder. Outside, in the prison yard, Wilson watches fellow inmates playing basketball and lifting weights. Ray-Ray, an older man, warns Wilson not to get his hopes up regarding parole. Wilson looks around and sees many men in their fifties and sixties. A phone call to Mom, who seems distracted, as if “she wasn’t listening,” deepens Wilson’s despair (77).

Prison brings Wilson stress from multiple sources. Some corrections officers (COs) seem to enjoy abusing inmates. Bammas, Wilson’s name for “prisoners who were loud and obnoxious and couldn’t chill,” constitute a different kind of problem (79). Two bammas on Wilson’s tier, Skeeter and Omar, cause trouble and steal from other inmates. Omar uses corrupt COs to smuggle drugs. Wilson witnesses two bammas stab a rapist. Wilson also watches as a 15-year-old inmate convicted of murder flies into a rage upon learning that his mother had been killed in retaliation for his crime.

In the dayroom, Wilson notices a young man reading. He learns that he also has a life sentence; he’s the only other lifer on the tier. Wilson wonders why he would bother reading. Every day, Wilson makes collect calls home. Mom answers occasionally. One day, Derrick answers and taunts Wilson about wearing Wilson’s favorite clothes and threatening to hook up with Wilson’s girlfriend. Leslie, now in the Air Force, sends supplies and money when she can. Mom finally tells Wilson that she has nothing to say to him because “What’s the point? You’re never coming home” (88).

After Mom rejects Wilson and never again takes his calls, he seeks comfort from Leslie. Instead, Leslie tells him that his calls are expensive, that many times she tried to warn him about his behavior and what the consequences would be, that she is getting married and has her own responsibilities, and that the family did not owe him. Wilson finally hears what he believes is the truth: “I was a burden” (90). He takes it to heart. He determines to find out if the name Chris Wilson “meant anything at all” (90).