My name is Savage. That’s the name I got in prison from members of the Hell’s Angels and Outlaws motorcycle gangs. I was in prison for over twenty years because of an unjust conviction.
When I was arrested, I was part way through law school, had an Honorable discharge from the United States Marine Corps, had spent time in an Army Green Beret unit, and had a job lined up as a Chicago cop. I was planning on working in the CPD Gang Crime Unit while finishing law school, because I hated gang members as much as I hated drug dealers, and then starting my own law practice or continuing with the police.
Instead, I spent the next twenty plus years in maximum security prisons, experiencing and somehow surviving things you’ve never imagined.
Think about what it would be like for you, in the life you are living right now, to be suddenly and forcibly taken away from everything you know, accused of things you have never done, have half of your so-called friends and society turn against you, and then be sentenced to prison for decades.
And that’s only the beginning. Next, you find yourself in prison–maximum security. A maximum security prison is a very harsh place. It isn’t like hell, it is hell.
But I survived it, I grew stronger. Despite all the horrific obstacles, I never compromised myself in prison, and I refuse to compromise myself now that I’m out. I followed my own personal code then, and I’m going to follow it now. Is that a problem?