I have published a book on Amazon books. It was supposed to be free but Amazon requires you to charge a minimum of ¢99 . You can find it at Amazon books under the author’s name and title , Travis Smith The Brooklyn express bandit – Where the oxycontin are. or by direct link https://cutt.ly/Ntq4ieN
The book is about my opioid addition and bank and pharmacy robberies.

I should say thank you to all health care workers. My sister in law , my nephew’s girlfriend both work in the field and my niece will be going into the field in a few years. I feel like a lazy shlub for contributing nothing. I hope this will pass soon. I see most people are nice decent people willing to do at least a little to help in whatever capacity. While of course there are the usual jack asses who try and exploit and take advantage of people. How the minds of these people work exactly I do not understand. Even imaging all the different ways psychology can go awry, it is difficult to comprehend these particular acts of unbecoming. Someone can talk down to inmates as a category of folks and generalize them but they would be wrong to place them in the same group as these people who try to charge a old lady ten times more for her medicine or a child his or her epipen ( what is it ?). They would be ignorant of the true nature of most us.
There are many people working surreptitiously in the shadow either for good or for bad in order to achieve their ends. The vast majority of individuals scurry about in complete obscurity without any expectation of being recognized for whatever it is they may have done. This is an ideal occurrence for those who are working against the grain of society. But as luck would have it some of these people are exposed as a result of serendipitous exigency. However it is nice when we have ocaasion to shine a light upon a person or persons who have done something extraordinary. We do it for astronauts like Christina Kock and Jessica Meir for their very unique and important contributions to our world. And now so with more ordinary individuals as a result of their plight set about by the corona virus.
It is my hope this passes soon and lightly as possible. I know there have been many whom have suffered pain and misery and even death. I personally known some who have become infected. I hope it passes by eluding the shadow of death. It is a new world with this pandemic that has left the masses in awe of its sudden and surreal swiftness in swarming the globe in sickness and economic disarray. Whole countries have been embattled by a strange and insidious foe. But this pandemic will pass. And like the droplets of water pouring down upon us as rain, we will be strengthened from its touch just as the moisture that dampens our spirits in rain pass through the prism of the sun’s light and disperse as a fading rainbow , we are left with the promise of future resistance.
I want to as a inmate sitting helpless within a cesspool of the virus let it be known I am empathetic with the feeling of fear and anxiety while waiting it out. From what I have learned reading newspaper articles I am in a population which is suppose to be last in line for anything. I do not disagree in all respects. I read a article in the Ohio Columbus Dispatch to the editor. The man who wrote the article expressed abject contempt for all inmates. Without considering any factors whatsoever about individual circumstances he concluded we should not really be fed or sheltered but what to keep us alive. He expressed genuine disgust and shock when he learned we were allowed to read books…So he preferred the idea of an inmate getting out illiterate and untrained for any job. He must never imagined it to be possible that the inmate he despises might become his neighbor. This is the general feeling I’ve become accustomed to toward myself and others in my situation. There are a lot of low life ignorant people in prison who will never change. They will get out and continue the same pathetic way of life trapped in the endless cycle of the revolving door of jail and prison. These are either dangerous predators who somehow continue to elude serious enough charges that keep them locked up , like people you read about who end up killing some beautiful soul and it is discovered they have a laundry list of past charges like sexual assault, abduction, rape, felonious assault- but amazingly have done no sentence over five years. Its takes a rape and murder to get them any significant time. Then you have people like me who in the middle of their life became addicted to opioids and ended up stealing money while in possession of a gun. People who do this are deemed immediately dangerous and sent away for life. People like me are not stricken with a sickness like the predators mentioned above.We would just go back to our normal life we lived prior to our out of the ordinary turn of the path. Then you have those people who commit petty crimes again and again coming and going from jail and prison. These are the nuisance to society. Unfortunately for me the state does not have the same perspective as I do. They think of a violent crime as holding a gun even though its not used. But I have seen inmates with those short sentences who have beat someone within an inch of their life. But a gun was not used so its not considered violent-or seriously violent. It seems to be a weird paradox. Same with sexual offenders. A man will get rape charges ran concurrent as I saw happen at Allen with a inmate Murphy. But when its a robbery it is always consecutive sentences and excessive charges,like unnecessary kidnapping. These violent offenders hold women captive , a terrible event for these poor girls , and the judge either refuses to sentence them or the prosecutor makes a deal and drops the charges. It is absolutely unreal.

Travis Smith
DOC #529433