Damon West, former inmate and author, to deliver trainings and donated materials to Bureau of Prisons staff

Damon West, an author and speaker who served time in Texas, said in a podcast interview that he will expand his prison outreach to facilities run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and has donated leadership-training materials to the agency.

West described a rehabilitative message he calls the "coffee bean" allegory and said he uses it in talks for sports teams, corporations and correctional staff. "The coffee bean is about being the change agent," he said, explaining that people can respond to hardship like a "carrot," an "egg" or a "coffee bean." He said he also gives books and workshops to staff and inmates.

Host Director Smith of the bureau said West and others have provided training resources that will be rolled out to wardens and leaders. "You donated, a really big donation to this bureau here recently, an investment in training," Director Smith said on the program, adding that West and a team filmed material at MSTC that will be shared with leaders.

West recounted his own prison experience and post-release work. He said he was convicted in Texas and received a sentence he described as "65 years," and he provided an inmate number (1585689). He said volunteers, chapel programs and educational work inside prison helped him change and that the parole board released him in 2015 after seven years.

West framed his outreach as addressing both staff and inmates. He said he focuses first on staff because better-staffed and supported institutions improve safety and outcomes: "If I can get in these facilities, they can touch the dream," West said, and he added that staff training also reduces assaults and contraband by improving staff-inmate relations.

He cited a statistic he learned while earning a master's in criminal justice: "95 percent of all the people incarcerated in America ... are gonna get out," West said, and he argued that prisons should prepare people for reintegration. He said his presentations include practical leadership exercises and mental-health awareness; he described an exercise where most people in a corrections training raised their hands when asked if they had been through a divorce or knew someone who had taken their own life.

Director Smith told listeners that some staff have expressed pride that they helped enable West's visits. He also said outside stakeholders have for the first time committed funds to the bureau, and said the filmed training will be distributed to wardens and new leaders.

The interview closed with both men thanking one another and West saying he will continue to travel to BOP facilities as approvals allow. "Now that BOP ... have opened up the gate for me, I get to couple my trips and go into BOP facilities and share this message of resilience," West said.