Voices of the Incarcerated - I Became an Entrepreneur in Solitary

Heidi • February 2, 2024

"I chose to let my experience there become my light."

The following is an excerpt from an essay titled "I Became an Entrepeneur in Solitary Confinement" by Robert Shawn Johnson, which is published at the Prison Writers website.


*****


I spent one year in solitary confinement once, and I made it my goal not to ever go back there again!


My path to this punishment began on Sept.14, 2013, when my cell, on unit 3c of the North compound at New Jersey State Prison, was searched by two officers. One of those officers claimed that the letters found inside my cell (including correspondence from my mother) were Security Threat Group (STG) material, a violation of prison rules.


The officer claimed that the mail from my mother and portions of a legal court document, a portion of a witness statement, contained gang-related references within them. I knew this was bogus because there were no gang references in the letters from my mother, and the portion of the legal court document was a part of someone’s case I was helping them with. And any certified legal court documents are supposed to be exempt from the rules for STG material anyway.


7 wing (Adseg) consisted of 7up, 7down, and 7right. There are five tiers on both sides of 7 wing, and each tier has 33 cells that are about 5 feet by 9 feet (equivalent to a parking lot space). The walls are made of metal painted grey, and your toilet is inside the wall (literally). It’s a metal box about 18 inches wide, 36 inches in length, 18 inches in depth, and with a 10 inch in diameter circular hole right in the middle of the base, where you sit down to use the bathroom (a small fridge sitting inside the wall). During my year long stay, I would always see mice and rats roaming as if it was their territory, and they will come in your cell at night being that the doors were open bars, like a gate.


Regardless of what level of Adseg you’re on, we were given a shower two times within five days, whereas in GP you are able to get a shower every day if you choose. I was afforded to go to yard (recreation) every five days if I was lucky, because a lot of the time it would get cancelled for no reason at all. You had to be up at the 5:30 a.m. count time walk through to let the officer know you wanted to go outside to the yard, because if you did not then you were beat. I don’t personally know if the administration knew this was the way the yard list was taken in Adseg, but it happened all of the time.


Outside of working out and working on my appeal for my case, I started to format my business plans as an entrepreneur in Adseg. My family and friends would research certain business information I needed on how to start and run a business whenever I asked them, and then send it to me in the mail. I don’t ever remember having any problems with receiving those materials, and I took that as God helping me to obtain what I needed to have in order to fulfill the purpose of my entrepreneurial drive. Even though there were no restrictions when I was in Adseg, nowadays their mail is being photocopied before they receive it.


Growing up, I always had that entrepreneurial spirit in me because I would search for business information on the computer at home and set up little jobs for my friends and me, where I delegated everyone’s job. Now, with the information I was receiving, I learned the industries for apparel, accessories, ebooks, and credit repair. I learned about financial literacy in various ways because even in that dark time, I knew God put a light in me I needed to get out.


Adseg was a process I needed because even though I’m still incarcerated today, I am now an entrepreneur. I am the Co-Founder and CEO of my own apparel, accessory, ebook, and credit repair company named Always Xpect Greatness LLC that I started with three of my close friends. I am a published poet by the Prison Journalism Project with my inspirational poem titled The Climb.


I don’t wish solitary confinement upon anyone, because it’s truly an unhealthy environment, mentally and physically. Solitary confinement can darken your spirit, but I chose to let my experience there become my light.


*****


Robert Shawn Johnson is the CEO and Co-founder of the Always Xpect Greatness Brand. He has published 14 books and is a motivational speaker while incarcerated in New Jersey. You can read his full essay, "I Became an Entrepeneur in Solitary Confinement" at the Prison Writers website. Prison Writers offers uncensored, personal stories and thoughtful essays from incarcerated citizens across the country about what really goes on inside the secretive world of prison corrections.

an adult hand grasping a child's hand through prison bars - Photo: iStock
By Heidi July 1, 2025
In May 2025 the Incarcerated Womxn’s Clemency and Support Project (IWCSP) and Kwaneta Harris Defense Campaign hosted a webinar entitled “Mothering Behind Bars: Voices of Incarcerated Mothers in Reflection of Mother’s Day.
Aerial of Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, CA (Photo: KSBW News)
By Heidi June 27, 2025
Incarcerated people at Salinas Valley State Prison in CA declared a hunger strike, protesting alleged are unlawful practices by California Department of Corrections.
image of State of California capitol building in Sacramento next to the California state flag.
By Heidi June 26, 2025
Legislative update on SB 672, Youth Rehabilitation and Opportunity Act, (Sen. Susan Rubio) which would allow some juvenile LWOP convictions to seek parole board hearing.
Leonard Peltier, at his home on the Chippewa Reservation in North Dakota (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)
By Heidi June 25, 2025
After 50 years wrongfully imprisoned, Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier is home. MPR News sits with Peltier in one of his first longform interview since his release.
ICE agents outside a Newark NJ detention facility (Photo:  Brian Branch Price/ZUMA Press Wire)
By Heidi June 24, 2025
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is detaining an increasing number of immigrants without any criminal history, according to recent federal government data.
Join civil rights leaders to urge Gov. Newsom to commute all death sentences; rally at capital 6-26
By Heidi June 20, 2025
Clemency California invites all clemency advocates to the capital in Sacramento on Thursday, June 26th, starting at 10am, to help call on California Governor Gavin Newsom to commute all California death sentences.
fingers forming heart hands from behind prison bars (Photo: Rajesh Rajput)
By Heidi June 20, 2025
The essay "Benjamin Case and the Power of Love" appears at the Prison Writers website, and is written by Benjamin Case, incarcerated in South Carolina.
graphic of a public defender in a courtroom (graphic - iStock)
By Heidi June 17, 2025
Public defenders are crucial to ensuring a fair justice system for all by providing legal representation to those who cannot afford it. After a Mississippi court ordered state legislators better fund public defenders after significant delays in providing representation, the program is set to receive funding.
Defendant's seating in San Diego Courtroom (Photo: Adriana Heldiz/CalMatters)
By Heidi June 16, 2025
Signed in 2023, SB97 set to remove a number of significant barriers to overturning wrongful convictions in California. Two years later, Cal Matters reports a lack of defense investigators leaves California unable to provide those promised safeguards.
on sat 6/14, LA Free Legal Clinics will be on the ground to support participants of the LA Protests
By Heidi June 13, 2025
For tomorrow, Saturday June 14th, the free legal clinics offered the second Saturday of every month in Los Angeles will be moved to the streets to support people participating in the Los Angeles protests, as well as people most threatened by the ongoing ICE raids.
Show More