This site hosts a solid and sordid memoir about my involvement with a white collar crime in the late 1980's and subsequent journey through the federal prison system in the early 1990's. This honest and humorous tale also includes acres of ground surrounding my recovery from the depths of severe alcohol dependency.

The story is divided into quite a few sections, so if you are only looking for a passage or two about a certain aspect of prison life then you can get there a little more rapidly.  There are certainly some passages that are a must-read for any executive awaiting sentencing for their participation in a white collar crime.

It begins with a brief history of my dysfunctional childhood and adolescence, which will give you an understanding of how my alcoholism developed and why I still wear my chaps backwards. I then mosey into the events surrounding my commission of mortgage fraud and the plea process while also covering the shenanigans that occurred during this period of time as I slid into drinking a half-gallon of vodka per day.

A business and a marriage fall apart. There’s a bad guy. There’s a rehab stay with colorful rehab characters. There is an ice-pick stabbing. There is paranoia. There are a couple of hospitalizations. There is shaking and puking. There is enormous care and concern for two young children.

Once the gavel falls, I take you on a chronological journey through the inane labyrinth of a three-year club-fed vacation. I give you a broad background of prison life and I mention many humorous anecdotes that occurred during my stay. I also discuss the changes that take place within me spiritually on my recovery road.

The story continues after I am released from prison. I discuss my six month half-way house stay as well as my ensuing relationship with my ex-secretary. After that relationship goes south I finally have an “aha” experience regarding my inner child, thus completing the story and that leg of my life journey.

I wrote this tale partly as therapy and also to alleviate boredom. Since there are so many misconceptions of prison life swirling around I also wrote it to give anyone out there an idea of what the prison camp ride was like. While there is no question a tenure at the USP level would have been substantially different, as would a tenure at any state level facility, these pages will offer a pretty good example of daily life at the federal minimum and medium security levels.

Also included in these pages are a number of poems I penned while on location, hence the title, "Late Night Letters to the Moon". Writing them was an excellent way to express my feelings at the time and was a great source of inspiration and therapy for me. I hope you can take away something from any one of them.

Please check out the "Links" page for some great links to other noteworthy prison sites, legal sites and other sites that can help if you are in the process or ready to start the process of recovering from some form of substance dependency.   

Disclaimer: The information contained in this website and memoir is based from personal experience while serving a 37-month sentence at three federal facilities in the early 1990’s. None of the information contained in this memoir and website should be construed as legal advice or official government policy or procedure. It was simply my experience. The information provided is not offered as current fact, policy or procedure currently employed by the B.O.P. While I am certain many policies of the B.O.P. are the same, I am also certain many have changed since this incarceration. I am also certain these inmate attitudes and similar anecdotes will continue forever.

Some of the first names used in this manuscript might be the real first names of nobody you know, unless you know me, and then you already know why nobody you know would care, I think.  Many of the first names have been changed, primarily because they weren’t nice people, but also because my notes got sketchy at times.  Any last names used are definitely NOT the true last names of any of the characters in this memoir.

All the names and ranks of prison personnel are different. Any resemblance to a real person is purely coincidental.

Speaking of names, my real name is not Leonard Parker. For obvious reasons, I choose to remain anonymous at this time. I apologize if your name is Leonard Parker and you receive grief because of this website. Obviously, you are not me. Any resemblance to you or any other Leonard Parker on the planet is purely coincidental, primarily because the Leonard Parker depicted in this saga isn’t really Leonard Parker, anyway.