Roger Atencio and George Tice, both incarcerated at Otero County Prison Facility, in Chaparral, New Mexico, took a few minutes to express their gratitude for the many opportunities they have to improve their lives.

Roger Atencio:

“This year I’m thankful I’m able to work. I’m getting prepared to get out in the next nineteen months. I’m glad that I’m able to work as a clerk in the classification department because it’s allowing me to learn some skills that I need to work eight hours a day, for when I get ready for the streets.”

“Another thing I’m grateful for is that I’m able to take programming for my behavior, my thinking, my bad habits to charting a new course; MRT [Moral Reconation Therapy]. Those are accessible to me, and I’m taking every class that I can, so that I can improve my thinking and habits.”

“I’m also grateful because the staff allows us to have inmate clubs here, and we’re able to raise money through fundraisers to better us as well as give to the community. We’re able to work with the staff, and they help us to find people within the community, so that we can donate money through the funds raised through our club sales. I’m really grateful for that, because its helping me to think outside of me and think of others.”

George Tice recognizes that clubs are possible because of selfless staff members.

“We, of course, can’t contact most of the people that we’d like to, directly, and so we rely on staff members. For the clubs, particularly, we have to have sponsors for the club, and it’s kind of a big bite for a staff member to chew off and decide they want to sponsor a club, because we have fundraising sales, and they end up having to go price items at a grocery store, go pick it up, and all the logistics on their own time.”

“Typically, at other institutions I’ve been in, it’s been really difficult to get sponsors. Here, our club alone has eight people willing to sponsor us. Eight staff members. It’s awesome. We don’t have to burden any one person, and we pretty much get all the help we need here. And that’s great. It’s been really good.”