“Prison Clown” a book review

Highly Recommended **** For eons, people have left their homelands to come to the United States so that they can live “The American Dream”. Maybe they will own their own business or at least the opportunity to do so. This is also true for those born and raised here. Most of us want to have a nice home, car, trips, a family and all the leisure time possible. Owning a business can be hard, frustrating and yet very rewarding. BUT- what if you owned a business and di everything right , as far as you knew> and then found out that everything you thought was fair and legal, was indeed a crime? What if you had to make a deal with the government and go to prison ?

I just finished reading “Prison Clown” by  Richard Keith. Keith and his wife got into the re-hab business during a time when turning over homes was a great way to make money. You buy an older home, in many cases, far under the value, and then re-hab it so it is livable and make a profit. Keith and his wife went this route and had many family members as investors in the projects they took on. They had a stable of workers, bankers and others who would work with them on the projects. In all the cases, they followed the letter of the law ( as they knew it) to the nth degree.

Then their world changed! It turned out that they had been misguided in their search for the rules and much of what they were doing was considered bank fraud, a federal offense, so they were indicted for federal crimes. She ended up getting off, but he had to face a prison term. Mind you, he never knowingly tried to screw anyone. In fact, when the re-habs homes were being robbed before closing, he arranged to wait until after closing to finish the job. In doing this, the job was not done twice ( cutting the profits) and the buyers moved into a complete and finished home.

Guess what? That was also a violation of the law!

In his book, Keith takes us through his experiences of living on one for the white collar prison farms- how it works, the food, the rules, the daily life, the penalties, the family visits and more. We learn about the cells and cell mates, the contraband, the family visits and more. He tells us about his fears and how he overcame some and ignored others.

Should he have had to serve time for what he did? In reality , No! He was doing what he thought he should do to make all parties concerned happy. But when the hammer came down, and the Feds were seeking to clean up, they found that the threat of prison often worked in their favor because those who were afraid would give them info to reach the higher-ups and blow the cases wide open. Keith did not have a higher up, so he made the best deal his lawyer could to the least time he could.

I have watched a lot f TV shows that deal with prison. “Criminal Minds”, “Law and Order” (every version), “Hill Street Blues”, “Chicago PD” and many more. I have also read lots of police stories in books ( The Louis Mendoza series was a favorite along with the two books by Paul Lisnek) and understand the plea bargain as well as the “tit-for-tat” bargain that lightens the sentence for information. In the courtrooms they always say that the system will work for you and make you a better person. Keith tells us that the system doesn’t work and is very broken!.

The threats of going to the “hole” ( a place where no-one wants to be) sounds scary. It also sounds like being careful of what you say and how you say it is important to one’s health and safety. Keith did and said some funny things, allowing hm to be liked by inmates who might otherwise have harmed him. Prison is not a country club and even the white collar criminals who are sent to prison farms do not have a country club existence. Yes, better than the brick and mortar prisons with locks and guards everywhere, for sure, but in no way a walk in the park.

We learn a great deal about the broken system and how easy it is to get caught up in this even if you are just trying to build a business.

The book is published by Written Dreams Publishing ISBN 978-1-951375-24-9 and can be purchased wherever books are sold. I know that Amazon has them ( don’t they have everything?) but if you can, go to a local bookstore and help them stay alive in today’s business world. At the end of the book there are some poems that Keith wrote that tell of his years in prison. One of the lines early in the book is that “if it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone”. None of us are shielded from the government, so be careful when reaching to reach “the American Dream” and make sure you follow all the rules.

 www.WrittenDreamsPublishing.com