To my Christian Family:
I just want to share a little with you all. In 2012, I arrived at SCI Albion terrified and wondering what was going to happen to me here. I'd just spent a little under a year in Allegheny County Jail, SCI Pittsburgh and SCI Camp Hill almost always in the hole and always trying to pretend I wasn't the monster everyone was reading about in the newspapers and seeing on TV. One of the first things I saw here was a man get his skull cracked with a lock in a sock. Pretty soon after that I had to go back to ACJ to be labelled as a sexually violent predator, a predetermined outcome that took less than an hour while I pretended to be someone else for a month to survive. When I came back to Albion I was baptized on my birthday but I wasn't much better than I was when I was still "free." I was blessed to finish a business course and receive a job as a tutor. Still, I was full of sin, so much so that I turned my back on God completely. I chose to be in a homosexual relationship but God was not having it. Not even 2 full days into that I went to the hole. I spent a month crying there and wondering when I'd really be changed. I was shown favor again when my disciplinary time was cut in half and I was placed in sex offender programming far earlier than most long-termers. I completed that successfully and got another good job. I got very busy with chapel work and joined the choir. I was shown even more favor getting the best paying job available here. Almost immediately after that I was moved to the honor block. I began directing the choirs and giving words of encouragement at Hispanic Service. I have been shown favor the WHOLE time I've been here despite my hypocrisy. No one has ever laid an unkind hand on me despite the threats and ridicule. I'm truly free now and serving God. I'm not complete yet. I don't always win. I've been here now for 8 years and I want God to get the glory from me. Thank you all for the love and prayers. I love you all,
Matt
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