Sponsorship in Prison

My name is Blue, and I am an incarcerated person serving a life sentence in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for the crimes of sexual assault. This is the bad news. The good news is that coming to prison was the best thing that could have happened for me, because it forced me to take an honest look at myself and what I needed to do to transform and be healed. 

This led me to reach out to find a sponsor, who has helped me understand why I do some of the things I’ve done. He has also given me suggestions on how to change myself for the better by working through the 12 Steps and Traditions, and on how to apply them to my life. I sometimes (often) forget that God’s will is my number one priority. How am I going to accomplish His will in my life and share my message of how He is key?

I consider myself blessed to have found the man who is my sponsor. I never thought that I would ever have a sponsor to whom I could talk openly and honestly about my most shameful thoughts and behaviors. I know that without his help, support, and guidance, I would never be where I am today, living my life for the first time with joy and purpose.

To be honest, I almost gave up on ever getting a sponsor, because when I wrote to SA, it took a couple of years to hear back. So, I started thinking, “No one cares. I don’t even know why I even wrote them.” It wasn’t because they didn’t care, because they do! The problem is that the need for sponsors is so great, and there are simply not enough sponsors to meet the demands of people in prison. But SA is doing everything they can to get people to sponsor us.  If you are reading this and can be of service by sponsoring, I encourage you to do so, to pay it forward. If you are incarcerated, I encourage you to seek out a sponsor. It will be a life-changing decision.

I went back to court after being in prison for 19 years. I was resentenced, and the judge and the district attorney took 26 years off my original sentence. I will be going to my Parole Suitability hearing in about one year from now. I can honestly say that without my sponsor’s help, I never would have gotten resentenced. I say this because I want people to know the benefits that the 12 Steps of Sexaholics Anonymous sponsor-by-mail program offers to those of us who are in prisons.