I wrote this book to help curb recidivism rates among men and women coming out of today’s facilities, which are supposedly intended to help rehabilitate them for a better life on the outside. Here’s my contribution to this matter.

What motivated me to write this book? I think it was all the Lockup (and similar) TV programs I used to watch (back in the early 2000's) that depicted rehabilitation programs and training programs that, to me, were just so insufficient for truly preparing men and women for when the time came for them to be released into the public outside. For example, "You know you're going to have to get a job, right?" one trainer said. One of the inmates then replied, "There are no jobs where I live." The trainer had NO RESPONSE! 

At that time, I was a very successful web designer working from home. NONE of my web clients would ever know (or care) if I had 100 felonies or a record. They just loved my work and paid me. Where's that kind of training? You know, technology? Software? Working from home? Services you can provide where clients don't care if you have a record unlike your average company out there who do discriminate against those with a record. You get my drift. I thought to do something about it. 

The title itself, by the way, hit me strong during this book-planning stage. I mean, these people have little HOPE on the outside, I thought, when they get there because they don't have the kind of mental, emotional, intellectual and skillset training or support they really need to succeed. So, I love that title, Hope On The Outside. It is what everyone coming out of these facilities needs. HOPE, among other things, for sure.

Being a trainer, author, researcher, life philosopher, motivational speaker, and someone who's extremely proficient with several different software programs and someone who's maintained a living outside of a job for more than 30 years (haven't had a W2 since 92) it made sense for me to put together a book like this to give "hope" to those men and women who, in my opinion, weren't getting it.

Essentially, I put together a collection of positive and life-affirming attitudes, philosophies, mental approaches and more to some of the most pressing issues facing these men and women while they wait to be released. I tried to cover topics and areas that no other rehabilitation program or book would or could even think to cover or perhaps they didn't covered very well. I do believe that my book gives men and women on the way out, and their families as well, true HOPE ON THE OUTSIDE.