Robert (no real names used) is in Federal Prison in Georgia serving a nine year sentence for photographing underage girls. He is 44, married with children. Prior to his arrest, Robert had a 10 year history of sex addiction beginning with viewing internet pornography and evolving into viewing and creating adolescent and child pornographic material. He received intensive outpatient treatment at a clinic for sex addiction in California prior to beginning his prison sentence. Below are excerpts from his letter from September 2011 which show his strengths, his challenges and his commitment to recovery.
Dear Linda,
…..I’m reading a great book called The Addictive Personality, by Craig Nakken. It’s in their own library here for the drug classes. It he says that the object of addiction can switch once an addictive personality has been established within a person. He says when people get in trouble with one object they often switch to another one to get people off their back. I saw some of these dynamics myself when I began to face my issues more seriously… The first day I was stopped by the FBI at LAX airport I stopped looking at any images with underage (<18) models. That was the easiest step. Then there was porn, your standard internet porn that millions of guys are addicted to these days. That wasn’t so easy but with the help of Dr. Zimik (inVentura) he helped me set a goal to stop looking at porn altogether. I was able to do this for almost a year …But I simply transferred my focus to photography and doing shoots with women in sexy outfits, sometimes nude. It’s like squeezing a balloon, you just displace the air in the balloon, the air is still inside… it just moved to another area…
Well, on other fronts, I just switched “cellies” a few weeks ago. My former cell mate moved because he is now in the drug program. He was a drug dealer in Jacksonville FL.– a black guy with Bob Marly dreds and gold teeth. He probably never worked a real job a day in his life, he and I were not very compatible cell mates, put it that way….He stole some things from me and borrowed some stamps (about $18 worth) and refused to pay me back after months of badgering him. He has a serious gambling addiction and I have since found out he owes several people….In a normal prison situation I would have had to “deal” with this in a violent way. Not here. …The sex offender population have other issues but are generally normal people not trying to “get over” on anyone. I’ve found the sex offender inmate to be socially inept and/or “nerdy”, many playing dungeons and dragons…
I’m still working in the chow hall as a cook and I’m making and selling cakes on the week-ends….I spend about 4 hrs/wk with choir practice and several hours in Bible Study. I will be teaching a study soon on 2 Peter….I wok out about 3-4 days/wk…I miss my family like you wouldn’t believe and still have no hope of a visit at this point. My wife and I really don’t talk much. I talk w/ my kids once/week – that’s going fine. That’s all for now…
Take care,
Robert
No comment yet, add your voice below!