Unsung Heroes

71

S  E    G

leaders are not swayed by compassionate arguments or appeals

for doing something unusual to support an uncommon cause. In

their view, these individuals, irrespective of minimum-, midlevel-,

or maximum-security status, had been convicted of the crime for

which they had been tried, and personal appeals were not going

to effectively persuade them or make them agree with me when

making an argument for a work-release position. I quickly learned

to help these workers rewrite their appeal letters to seek special

exception to go on supervised supplies missions; the trick was to

rewrite them in the context of the benefits the prison would gain

by having the supplies delivered more quickly, speeding up the ...