Reflections on a Conversation with a Man Who Spent 25 Years in Prison and Chose Love Over Fear

I recently sat down for lunch with Sam Harris at Saltine in Norfolk. Sam is someone I met at the 2024 Returning Citizens Luncheon, and his story has stayed with me ever since.

Sam spent 24 years, 8 months, and 10 hours in prison. But that’s not what makes him remarkable. What makes Sam remarkable is what he did with those years, and what he’s doing now.

He went in during his early 30s and came out in his 50s to a world that had completely changed. Smartphones. Email. Kiosks replacing human cashiers. Cash, which had been king when he went in, was almost useless. He found himself afraid to use a self-checkout machine. If something went wrong and it looked like he was trying to steal, that could be a third strike. A life sentence over a simple mistake.

The system Sam navigated was built on fear. Fear of crime, fear of the other, fear that people can’t change. That fear creates policies that warehouse rather than heal, that punish rather than restore.

But Sam chose to operate from love. While other men might have become bitter or withdrawn, Sam became a counselor, a peer support specialist, a mentor. He started men’s groups because he understood that healing happens in relationship, not isolation. He understood something most people miss: reentry doesn’t start when you walk out of prison. It starts on day one inside.

Sam’s story is a challenge to every assumption the system makes about who people are and who they can become. He chose love where fear would have been the safer, more understandable response.

Read the full piece on Substack

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