I Went to Prison. Here’s What Happened.

A white guy from Maine gets invited to speak with 80 incarcerated men in Virginia about leading with love. That’s the setup. What happened inside was one of the most powerful experiences of my life.

I walked into Lawrenceville Correctional Center expecting to give a talk. What I found was a room full of men who were already doing the work. Men who had transformed themselves inside a system designed to break them. Men who understood love and fear at a level most people on the outside never reach.

I shared my story. The paper I wrote in Costa Rica. The adventure. The belief that the world works better when more of us are pulled by love than controlled by fear. And then something shifted. The conversation opened up. Men started sharing their own experiences. Their fears. Their transformations. Their hopes.

What struck me most was the vulnerability. These men had nothing to prove and nothing to hide. They’d already been stripped of everything the outside world uses to perform identity. What was left was raw honesty. And it was more powerful than any conference room conversation I’ve ever been in.

I left that facility changed. Not because I gave them something. Because they gave me something. They showed me what it looks like when men who have every reason to live in fear choose love instead. Deliberately. Daily. Without recognition or reward.

This experience became the foundation for the From Within project, a traveling art show featuring work by incarcerated artists. More on that to come.

Read the full piece on Substack

Learn more about the adventure at www.heart-strong.org