Imagine it’s the year 1624 and you and I are kicked back drinking ale in our powdered wigs when suddenly I take my feathered quill, dip it in ink, and draw you a detailed map of what is now the state of Florida. With one glaring exception… You lean over the flickering candle and frown at the southernmost tip of the peninsula. “Bravo, Malcolm. Well done. However, you appear to have forgotten the tiny string of islands at the bottom.”

I could do one of two things with this new information—investigate and eventually expand my map to include the Florida Keys, or slam down my map, cry “balderdash!” and deny their existence. But I could only deny for so long. At some point it would become absurd to continue to exclude these surveyed, documented, inhabited little geographical facts from my map.

Fifty years ago, psychologist M. Scott Peck was working on a groundbreaking book titled The Road Less Traveled . . . a book that, if released today, college kids would probably call “cringy.” There are admittedly some awkward passages that do not stand the test of time. But again, it was written in the 1970s. “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there . . .” However, there is one concept that has stuck with me ever since I closed the book and put it back on the library shelf. It’s the idea that our belief systems are a kind of mental mapping and that we are the ultimate cartographers.

How often do we reject incoming information—even decline to give it a fair hearing—because it confuses our brains? I catch myself doing this all the time. Especially in the sphere of politics.

Pop quiz: Who has done more for criminal justice reform? Joe Biden or Donald Trump? I can almost hear the collective yawn from the other side of your computer screens, but humor me a minute. Who do you think? If your familiar with my essays or the Miranda Rights series, then you know it pains me to admit that the answer to this question is—

The Donald . . . by a country mile.

In 2018, Trump signed into law a bill called the First Step Act. I remember hearing about it at the time, but I still had five years left to serve on a twenty-year state sentence and the law only applied to federal inmates. I just assumed it was some toothless piece of legislation that only applied to a handful of white-collar criminals.

Upon my arrival in Federal Prison six months ago, I was shocked to learn that many people have been going home early due to this law. A couple days ago, I watched an old lifer reduced to tears when granted compassionate release as a result of the First Step Act.

Maps.

Don’t get me wrong, the FSA is far from perfect. Eligible inmates must take classes to earn credits that will reduce their sentences. Unfortunately, federal prisons are so woefully understaffed that out of a 12-week program, you’d be lucky to attend a couple classes. But the framework is there. It’s something to improve upon. Something that might actually benefit society one day by turning out educated and reformed men and women back into their communities. Not yet, but someday.

A lot of my fellow inmates are convinced that if Trump is re-elected, there will be a Second Step Act that will extend beyond the current nonviolent drug offender demographic. I have doubts. Despite the fact that violent crime is down 40% on average from this time last year, the 24-hour news cycle is pumping a different reality. It would be difficult for any president to get criminal justice reform passed in the current political climate.

In addition to the First Step Act, Trump has promised to pardon all the “J. Sixers” if elected. Think those dudes weren’t happy to see Biden mumbling and stumbling over his words on the debate stage the other night?

And finally, there’s the optics of the mugshot, the 34-count indictment and subsequent guilty verdict, the upcoming sentencing hearing . . . the growing consensus is “Trump feels our pain.” And while I strongly disagree—to feel someone’s pain requires empathy, and the former President has never demonstrated anything remotely close—sometimes perception outweighs reality.

I think Biden understands this better than anyone right now.  Perception outweighing reality could be the theme of this election season. If Joe had been thinking clearly on the debate stage last week, he would have told America about his historic infrastructure bill, he would have touted his brazen CHIPS Act, record unemployment, the successful tightrope act of dodging a recession while taming inflation, the booming stock market, plummeting crime rates . . .

And it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference.

Why?

You already know the answer.

Maps.

—July 2, 2024