By Bob Clark
My name is Bob Clark. I am currently imprisoned in the state of Kansas. I got locked up when I was thirteen years old. The year was 1968. I was sentenced to a state training school for boys, for the charge of vandalism. My sentence was only four months. Little did I know, I’d never be free again. When I arrived at this youth prison, I had some adjustment problems. I ran away several times, which eventually led me to a Maximum Security Prison in Lincoln, Nebraska at the age of fourteen. As a scared youngster, I parlayed that four month sentence into 222 years for a series of assaults against staff and other inmates.
When you are that young, and in an adult prison, you have to fight for your life and honor. I’ve been locked up for fifty-plus years, because of this. I am 64 years old now. I’ve never had a relationship with a female, never been to a mall, never been fishing, never had a car. I’ve never done anything in society. I hope my story will reach the young out there that think the petty crime they are committing in society does not matter. It really does. I was locked up for non-violence, but it ended up costing me my whole life of freedom. After years of violence and solitary confined in Nebraska, I was transferred to the state prison in Kansas. I hope no one makes the mistakes I did. Even after all the years of hostility, I am still trying to better myself, educating myself, working and caring about youth enough to want to reach them with my message.
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| Bob Clark 44032 Oswego Correctional Facility 2501 West 7th Street Oswego, KS 67356 |