Audry Spade Interview

Earning Freedom with Michael Santos

Questions from Audry Spade

1. So Michael, you were in your early 20’s when you were convicted and sent to prison. I'm curious about your childhood and the influences you had growing up. How did you arrive at the decision to pursue crime?

2. What kind of technology do you remember people using back before your arrest in 1987?

3. You were arrested for drug trafficking and ultimately sentenced to serve 45 years in prison. Describe that first day of your sentence.

4. What did your days in prison consist of years into your sentence, after that initial shock had worn away?

• Describe an average day and the subculture of prison.
• What was the value system among prisoners?
• What did you eat? What was expected of you?
• How did other prisoners regard you?

5. You made a decision early in your sentence to live an accomplished life from inside prison. How does that compare to the ways in which other prisoners chose to serve their time?

• Was it difficult to exclude yourself from the prison’s own inner culture, being that it was the only value system available for you to ascribe to?

• How did those around you respond to your decision to reject a lifestyle that none of you could get away from?

• Did their reactions change when they realized your determination was paying off and you were actually succeeding?

6. Through the various forms of media that were available to you, such as television, newspapers, and magazines, you were to some degree exposed to the ways in which technology was changing in the outside world. How did you feel when you saw or read about new technology over the years? Did it interest you? Did you just feel “left out?”

7. How did you end up getting released after 26 years instead of having to serve all 45 years?

8. Describe your first day of freedom, particularly with regards to interacting with technology.

9. How long did it take for you to become technologically “fluent?” Do you feel alienated by society’s total reliance on technology today, or have you become just as reliant?

10. Have you retained any old habits from prison?

11. How’s liberation treating you so far, four years out? What are you up to these days?