After 23½ years in federal and state prisons, Michael R. Harris was released from San Quentin State Prison on Oct. 11, 2011. He has been active in numerous self-help organizations and was a leader in resurrecting the San Quentin News 3 ½ years ago.
Without going into the details of your case, can you tell me what happened?
I became accustomed to surviving on the hard streets of Los Angeles at a young age. I made a lot of money in the drug business. When I opened my eyes to all of the lives I had helped to destroy, it was too late. To this day, I’m still haunted about some of the things I’ve done. I started creating businesses in the community with the intent to help people, hoping this would remove some of the dirt I had done. When I became a so-called “legit businessman” I learned how to carry myself accordingly – ultimately I gained a sense of purpose. Then one day I found myself in handcuffs because I failed at processing a situation correctly.
Did you say that when you were first arrested you reverted back to the street hustler mentality of the past?
Yes, my attitude and demeanor was largely due to the mindset I had adopted while being housed in the notorious Los Angeles County Jail. It was easy for me to revert back into that street mentality.
Harris, once known as Harry O. on the streets of Los Angeles and in the music world, received 25 years to life for attempted murder and drug-related charges.
How would you describe your mindset when you started your 25-to-life sentence?
My ego was so strong that it wouldn’t allow me to see the reality. When I arrived at San Quentin for the first time back in 1988, I was still a beast.
When I arrived at Quentin, at that time it was a Level-IV. The atmosphere was intense and violent. I was still an ego-driven person due to all of the unfinished business that I left on the streets. My physical body was behind walls, but my mind was still in society. I was constantly thinking beyond prison. When San Quentin changed to a Level-II two years later, I was transferred to the newly opened Pelican Bay Level-IV prison, where I did 18 months. After that I was transferred to various other state institutions: Tehachapi, Lancaster and Soledad, than back to San Quentin in 2005.
Harris, who was once the puppeteer of a vast empire, found himself reduced to working as a porter at San Quentin. Harris was later assigned to clean the showers, a position he could have opted out of, but on his own chose to retain for over two years – an experience that he says, helped humble him.
What happened to help you see change?
It was natural for me to see that being locked up in a cage was unnatural. It took 15 years into my life sentence for me to really start seeing life from a different perspective. When you’re looking at things differently, they start to look different. And, I also learned how to respond differently as well.
I sold drugs because it was an easy way out. In retrospect, it took eight years of soul searching to realize that the choices I made were actually weak choices. I was conditioned to think the way I did. I started re-conditioning my brain by reading books about people, some whom came from like circumstances and made a positive contribution to humanity. After reading these types of books and experiencing their lives vicariously, I became ashamed of the person that I had once been. Today I believe that real power comes from patience, perseverance and finding true meaning in your life.
Was that really you? I’m referring to that beast.
That’s a good question. The best way to explain it is to say I had a split personality. One personality protected the other. I was conditioned to act a certain way when exposed to certain environments or situations in the past. With a lot of hard work, I was able to liberate myself from the negative conditioning and allow the true me to emerge. I am no longer that beast, thank God.
How have you grown spiritually?
In 1996 a food poisoning incident caused me to suffer a serious form of paralysis. While recovering in a prison hospital and unable to move, I had a spiritual awaking that caused me to have a conversation with my Creator. I have always been a spiritual person. In this conversation, I said, “If you allow me to live, I will change my life completely.”
When I got off the bus at San Quentin (the second time) I told myself I was going to go home from here. I immediately started looking for groups and programs to involve myself in. The first program I signed up for was T.R.U.S.T., which stands for Teaching Responsible Utilizing Sociological Training. For the last 15 years, I have been making choices that would move me closer to becoming a better person.
How do you believe the groups helped you in regards to dealing with the Parole Board?
The groups helped me to be honest. Before I stepped into the boardroom, groups like T.R.U.S.T., Keeping It Real, and V.O.E.G. (Victims Offenders Educational Group) helped me to be able to connect with the real reason why I was in prison – realizing that prison had become my reality. Looking at the part I played in the crime, I embraced the fact that it was me who put me in prison. I accepted the fact that the world I knew was no more.
The groups also helped me relate to how learned conditioning was implemented into my lifestyle. Groups enabled me to be in front of a crowd of individuals and say I am not a big shot. I am now able to listen to feedback objectively. I went through groups because they were a good tool to get what I wanted, not to mention they were a requirement for lifers. Yet by going through them, I got more than what I expected; I found my authentic self.
Is there any one person who has had an impact on your growth and development within the last 23 years of incarceration?
No. I believe my growth has been impacted or influenced if you will by a number of people and situations in many ways. I have also learned a great deal from negative things. Some people only look at the positive things for growth but I have learned from the negative things as well. One is learning how not to repeat those negative mistakes from the totality of the experience and examination that one goes through, if you do the work looking at all sides.
What are you planning on doing upon your release?
Plans are plans but what I’m passionate about doing is connecting with like-minded people, specifically young people who are poised to ultimately make some of the same mistakes that I have made in the past; by presenting myself as an example of why that’s not such a great idea. Just as important is connecting with people who are in the solutionary business as opposed to just focusing on the problems at hand and not actually elevating to the solutions that are needed, throughout this nation’s disenfranchised communities.
Is there any book in the making?
There are a few. One is called The Hearing, which is being designed in a memoir-type style. It utilizes the parole board as a vehicle to revisit my life experiences before and throughout my incarceration. Lessons and skills learned coupled with my rehabilitation efforts with a lens towards the entire California phenomenon for the last three decades. In terms of how urban neighborhoods cope with crime, lack of education, lack of opportunities due to poor economic training and access; coupled with how our present justice systems dispenses punishment. The other book is titled Mentorship by Like- Minded People, (about) individuals who have come from the same mind-set and or backgrounds, who have done the work on themselves and now use their past experiences to connect the dots for others. Motherland 2035 is a short story that I introduced recently in the Brothers in Pen series. The group’s new release, Six Cubic Feet, explores the past, present, and a bright future for Africa that I plan to develop into a complete novel. The third is called The Music Masters and my last one is called Doing Your Time.
Are there closing remarks you would like to leave with us?
If you don’t know how to process, it will affect the decisions you make. Two thoughts I would like to put out there: One of the keys, in my opinion, is to become your “best you,” not some one else’s version of what your best you should be. Learn to be OK with your best you; period. And the other thing would be to learn the difference between “Love & Respect,” which means different things to different people, but for me, I have found sometimes it’s pretty easy to love somebody today and not love them tomorrow. But one would be hard pressed to respect a person one day and not the next, so I prefer respect.
Tuesday morning about seven o’clock, Oct 11, 2011, Michael Harris departed San Quentin and was met at the gate by two federal marshals.
