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Jerry Byrne
On June 22nd, 2007 I was sentenced to prison for 2 1/3 to 7 years for committing securities fraud. After a successful Wall Street career spanning 25 years, this is where I was going to end up. I st...view moreOn June 22nd, 2007 I was sentenced to prison for 2 1/3 to 7 years for committing securities fraud. After a successful Wall Street career spanning 25 years, this is where I was going to end up. I stood before the Judge asking for leniency, my family and friends looking on. Shortly afterword however I was led away to begin my sentence. How was I ever going to survive this, an upper middle class, conservative, white man, who had never before had so much as a single traffic ticket? What did I know about prison and the intricacies of how to live each day behind those walls?
Notorious Rikers Island would be my first stop, placed in room with 50 other men. How would I last a day here much less several years?
Days before my sentencing I concluded that I must somehow turn this horrible journey awaiting me into a positive! There must be some type of 'good' that can come form this, I kept thinking to myself. So I decided to write a journal, a daily diary so to speak, of all that I felt, saw, and experienced during my days in prison. Not only did it become my therapy, but it became this story you are about to read.
I am now 52 years old, and the proud loving father to two boys, ages 21 & 17. I come from a large Irish Catholic family, six of us total. My loving parents, married 59 years, were an inspiration for me while I was away. Their countless visits, letters and phone calls carried me through some of my darkest days. The thought of them passing away while I was in prison was always my biggest fear. I would not have been allowed to attend their funerals. They passed away a year and half ago , within six months of each other, but thank God I had been released by then.
I live in Morristown, NJ and do free lance writing for a living. I hope this book will open doors about the horror of prison & the despair that lurks there. But at the same time the importance of never taking those everyday things for granted anymore, summoning the will to survive. I gained such strength & enlightenment behind bars, for once you lose your freedom, you'd do anything to get them back and never lose them again.view less
Books by Jerry Byrne
My Road Home: A 13 Month Journey from Wall Street to Behind the Walls of a Ny State Prison .