Damon West, former inmate turned speaker, donates staff trainings and shares "coffee bean" message with BOP audiences
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Summary
Former inmate and speaker Damon West told host Deborah Smith he now donates training content and speaks inside Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, emphasizing staff wellbeing, rehabilitation programs and a ‘‘coffee bean’’ allegory he uses to encourage change. He cited his 2009 conviction, release in 2015, and a 95% release statistic to argue for staff investment.
Damon West, an author and national speaker who spent time in Texas prisons, described in an interview how he now donates training materials and speaks inside Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities to promote staff wellbeing and inmate rehabilitation. "The coffee bean is basically the allegory about life — life is a pot of water," West said, explaining his central message that individuals can change their environment rather than be changed by it.
West told host Deborah Smith that he was sentenced in a Dallas RICO case and received what he described as a 65-year term; he said he was arrested July 30, 2008, tried in 2009, and released on parole in 2015 after seven years. West provided his inmate number (1585689) during the conversation and said he remains on parole, identifying a parole term in the transcript through 2073. "I was the ringleader of a bunch of other meth addicts breaking in the houses all over Dallas," he said in recounting his criminal history.
West said he teaches the "coffee bean" message at events for sports teams, corporations and prison staff, and that volunteers and chapel programs were instrumental in his own rehabilitation. He described work he began inside prison — literacy and GED assistance — that drew the parole board's attention: "I opened a free tribute in service in prison. I started teaching guys how to read and write," he said.
Both West and the host described recent donations of staff-training content filmed at MSTC and said BOP leaders and wardens will receive those materials. "You donated, a really big donation to this bureau here recently, an investment in training," the host said; West confirmed he has worked to provide presentations and books for staff and inmates.
West stressed the need to invest in corrections staff because, he argued, the health of those staff members affects community safety after release. He cited a statistic from his graduate studies that "95 percent of all the people incarcerated in America ... are going to get out," using that figure to underline his point that prisons and corrections staff must be resourced to support reentry.
West also described mental-health strains inside corrections facilities, saying trainers asked how many in a room had experienced divorce or knew someone who had died by suicide and that "almost every hand went up." He framed his work as intended to give staff tools for resilience and to help inmates "touch their dream."
The interview identified key institutional contacts who recommended West's access to prisons, including Brian Collier (named by the host) and Warden David Paul of FCI Lexington (named by West), and noted that federal access to BOP facilities had recently opened for West after prior efforts. The host and West said Steve Harvey and other outside speakers participated in events inside some facilities; West said those speakers performed without payment.
The episode closed with both host and guest emphasizing future training rollouts for wardens and staff and mutual thanks for the partnership. "Thank you for the investment that you've been willing to make into the BOP," the host said; West replied, "Thank you, man. I get to now travel the country and spread this message throughout all the BOP facilities."
